Life Ain't Always Beautiful
by Dixie Darlin
Summary: Followup to Deliver Us From Evil, set when Bo's daughter Chelsea is fourteen.  Life can be confusing and hard to understand when things tend to go off course from the norm...
1. Back to Basics

**A/N: I'm baaaack! I decided to go ahead and write another story that ties in with my other 3 stories, this time set when Bo's daughter Chelsea is 14 years of age. When you see something written in italics, that's her point of view. **

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

_My name's Chelsea Duke. I'm fourteen years old with brown wavy hair an' big brown eyes. I just started high school a few weeks ago, an' so far I HATE it. Education's highly over-rated. All anyone cares about at school is whether ya got the prettiest outfits, the perkiest personality, or here in Hazzard County, if ya got the loudest truck or the biggest tires. You can say that I don't necessarily fit in with the girls. Give me a fishin' pole over a fashion magazine anyday. I have my OWN fashion: ripped up blue jeans and tank tops, thank you very much._

_My momma, Rachel, died when I was only one year old. I don't remember anythin' about her, but my daddy Bo said she was the sweetest soul ya ever did meet. Daddy's been raisin' me since she died all by hisself. I don't see how he could put up with me for so long but he did a good job. I think he thought he was raisin' a son instead of a daughter though. I don't mind too much, I rather like workin' on cars an' wadin' in creekbeds. _

_My daddy's cousin Luke, who's my uncle by marriage to my Aunt Ali (that's Momma's sister), comes over and hangs out with Daddy everyday. They both run the garage downtown that used to belong to my cousin Cooter Davenport, whom I only see maybe four times a year while he's drivin' cross country with his eighteen-wheeler. Uncle Luke and Aunt Ali are wonderful to us. They treat me like one of their own (which would be my cousins Jesse and Lizzy). Uncle Luke and Daddy are the best of friends. Although I can't help but think that no matter how Uncle Luke or the rest of us try, it seems like Daddy's a little distant sometimes. Aunt Ali says it's because he misses Momma so bad. If she was as great as I hear, I don't blame him. _

_My cousin Jesse is a couple of years younger than I am, but I still hang out with him. He's got blonde hair like my dad with big blue eyes like HIS daddy. He's kinda overweight and gets picked on at school about it, so he's not too big in the friend department either. He's probably the nicest kid you'll ever meet though. He likes to catch lizards an' things like that an' then he talks to them like they're pets. Lizzy, Jesse's younger sister, is too sissy to do anything that I want to do but she still screams to tag along anyway. She talks too much sometimes. She's only a year younger than Jesse but she acts like such a big baby sometimes. I think it's just to get attention, which she gets plenty of._

_My cousin Daisy and her husband Enos, who happens to be the sheriff in these parts, are the parents of my other cousin Rachel. She was named after my momma. She's a few months younger than Jesse so they're in the same grade at school. Now SHE likes to have fun. She's stark raving mad sometimes. She's jumped off rooftops before, somethin'_ _I won't even do an' I consider myself pretty brave. Rachel's good at opening her big mouth and bitin' off more than she can chew, so she manages to get herself into trouble every once in a while. And being the older cousin, I usually get called on to save her little hide._

_Momma's other sister, my Aunt Evie, lives in Tennesse on a horse ranch with her husband Uncle Rosco. They only come down for Christmas time and sometimes they pop in for a visit during the summer. I love them both to death. They always send birthday presents and other goodies through the mail. A few years ago when I was twelve, Daddy let me spend the summer with them on that ranch of theirs. I loved playing with those baby horses. Aunt Evie seems to like playin' mother hen around me, I guess because they don't have any children of their own. In my opinion, Uncle Rosco's enough of a kid for her to deal with on a daily basis. I hope they come down soon, I miss 'em a lot..._

_

* * *

_

**Chapter One: Back to Basics**

Like every other morning, Chelsea awoke to the sound of the annoying BEEP BEEP of her alarm clock going off beside her bed. After reaching over to blindly try and hit the snooze button, she stayed snuggled down in the warmths of her blankets before at last she lifted her head, her face enveloped in a curtain of hair. She let her mind focus on what was going on around her, the sleepy fog still polluting her consciousness. She then groaned as she remembered that it was Saturday morning and there had been no need to be awaken by an alarm.

"Chelsea!" her father, Bo Duke, called from the kitchen. He was no doubt reading the morning paper and drinking a fresh mug of coffee. "I know you're up!"

"Aw, Daddy!" Chelsea moaned, throwing her pillow across the room as she threw her covers up and sat up in the bed, running her hands through her long hair. Fussing at herself she grudgedly went to her closet, half-open due to the pile of clothes and shoes laying in the way of the door, and grabbed the first pair of clean blue jeans she found and a red tank top to go with it.

Bo gave his daughter an amused grin when she finally came into the kitchen and grabbed a banana from the fruitbowl on the counter. "Mornin', sunshine."

"Mornin'," she mumbled, her mouth full of banana at the moment.

_Don't you hate mornin' people? I would, 'cept that's what Daddy is. He could've been up all night wrasslin' with a horde of angry black bears an' STILL wake up with a smile on his face. _

"It snowed last night," Bo mentioned casually, turning the page of his newspaper.

Chelsea looked up and gave him the "look". "Daddy, it doesn't snow in August, much less in Georgia."

"Hmmm . . . well, I looked outside and I saw the ground covered with this strange white stuff . . . I thought it was snow," Bo told her, glancing over and giving her one of his boyish grins.

Wondering whether her father had lost his mind or not, Chelsea curiously went to the window to look out at the front yard. Lo and behold, the yard was indeed covered in white---it just wasn't snow. Chelsea growled under her breath.

_Aunt Ali told me that when someone rolled their house, she would go and egg _their _house. I think I might just do that. And then graciously return their paper in a big gift bag with a fancy red ribbon._

"I guess I know what I'm gonna be doin' all day," she grumbled, turning around to head for the hallway closet to get a large garbage bag to pick up the toilet paper that was decorating their lawn.

"They struck early this year."

"That means they'll do it again in about a month or so. We should get a dog, a big ol' German Shephard or even a Doberman."

"I don't think Tabby would like that," Bo said, referring to their overweight orange striped cat.

_Maybe I should stick Tabby inside the gift bag and when they dump the contents out, he'll come flying out an' attackin' the first person he sees. When they try to return him, I'll pretend he ain't mine. Then I can get my dog._

* * *

So far she had gathered up two huge trashbags full of toilet paper. She was only grateful that they were not _used _and still clean. She was beginning to think that she should perhaps throw red-dyed feminine necessities at their yards instead of eggs. Tabby strolled along and liked to bat at the loose ends of paper flapping in the light breeze as they hung from their temporary home in the rosebushes. Chelsea heard the sound of a car driving down the road and looked up to see if she could recognize who it was. None other than Uncle Luke. 

Luke was chuckling when he got out of his truck as he observed the "winter wonderland". He remembered back in the day when he would do the same thing to his schoolmates.

"Mornin', darlin'!" he waved at his niece, who playfully threw a toilet-paper ball in his direction---which of course only flew a few inches in front of her. "Your dad inside?"

"Yeah. Where's Aunt Ali an' the kids?"

"She took 'em school supply shoppin'. Jesse needed a few things we didn't already have an' Lizzy needed some new clothes."

_That kid always needs new clothes. I've been wearin' the same clothes now for two years, I don't need any new ones._

Luke hopped up the stairs to go inside to talk to Bo about whatever it was he needed to talk about. More than likely about the garage. Tabby curled up in a ball in a giant pile of paper that was beside Chelsea's feet. She scooped him up along with his new bed and stuffed him in a trashbag until he started yowling and leaped out.

"Well, it was worth a shot!" Chelsea exclaimed at the cat.

Bo and Luke came back down into the yard. They were leaving to go to work. Bo wouldn't be back until lunchtime and then later on at around five or six. Which meant Chelsea had the house to herself.

"Bye, Daddy!" Chelsea called out.

"Bye, sweetie!" Bo waved before hopping in Luke's truck. "Have the yard clean when I get home."

She gave him a mock salute, which made Luke laugh. Bo shook his head good-naturedly and waved again before they took off.

* * *

"Mommy, I like this dress!" Lizzy said excitedly as she reached up to snatch a dress off the clothes rack before rushing to Ali to show it to her. She may have been eleven years old, but that didn't seem to be excuse enough for her to act a little more her own age. 

"I don't think that's your size, baby. Let's see if they have it."

"Moooom," Jesse drew out, tiredly dragging along behind the girls. "I'm bored, and this is stupid. Why did we have to do this on a Saturday?"

"Ooooh, oooh, Mommy, I like this dress too!" Lizzy exclaimed as she grabbed at another dress farther down the rack.

"Ya can't have all of them, dear," Ali told her before turning her attention to her son. "Jesse, I promise, as soon as we get done here, I'll drop ya off at the garage to be with Dad an' Uncle Bo."

"Mommy, I wanna try them on!"

Ali's cell phone started playing "Footloose" so she dug threw her purse and found it to answer. "Hello? Oh, hello, Chelsea. Sure, I'll come over with Lizzy when I get done. No, Jesse's going to be with his dad all day. Okay, bye bye."

"We're gonna go see Chelsea?" Lizzy asked shyly.

"Mom, can we _please _hurry up?" Jesse begged. He couldn't understand why it took girls such a long time to do things.

Ali shook her head to clear the vapors that her children were causing her to have. "Jesse, if you're careful you can go ahead and go to your dad, okay?"

"_Thank you_."

"Mommy, I want Chelsea to see me in my new dress!"

* * *

Bo was sweeping the garage floor while Luke was in the back finishing up some paperwork. It'd been slow today, not many people had come in. Jesse came running up, panting from lack of breath. He was a little overweight and didn't run very much, but today he made an exception. Bo smiled. 

"Hey, kiddo. Your dad's in the back."

"Hi, Uncle Bo. Y'all been busy?"

"You kiddin'? It's been deader than a graveyard around here."

Luke came walking out at that point. Jesse went to give him a high-five.

"How was shoppin' with Mom?"

"Terrible," the boy replied, rolling his eyes. "Lizzy kept grabbin' at random dresses an' makin' a big deal outta everything. Next time someone pulls in for gas, can I pump it?"

"He's quick, ain't he?" Bo chuckled.

* * *

"Honey, hold still," Ali instructed as she tried to help her daughter put the dress on correctly in the dressing room. Normally she could've put it on herself, but there were lots of buttons in the back that needed buttoning. "There ya go, how does that fit?" 

Lizzy looked at herself in the mirror, turning around in a circle to get all the angles. "It fits."

"Good."

"But I don't like it."

Ali let out a deep breath. "Then why did you grab it off the rack?"

"I _did _like it, but I changed my mind," the girl shrugged.

"Whatever," Ali moaned, tugging the dress off her child and handing her pink shirt back to her. "Here, you're a big girl, put this on."

While Lizzy was putting her shirt back on, Ali felt a pain in her chest. She'd been feeling it for a few weeks now and wished it would go away. She also noticed that she'd been losing some weight the past couple of months, due to her loss of appetite that she'd acquired. Sometimes she would feel extreme fatigue and shortness of breath at times during the day. She had thought it might have been the stress of raising two kids, but why would it just be happening now?

Well, nothing too extreme had happened so far. If something went real bad with her, she would go to the doctor then.

* * *

Okay, that's chapter one, sorry if it seemed slow :( Please leave me a review and I'll update ASAP. 


	2. Starting Point

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Two: Starting Point**

Shannon Cooper didn't know what had hit her when she walked out her front door and found the grass stained with egg yolks, baking soda, and messy toilet paper strewn around her mother's beautiful garden. Horrified, she stepped out the front door and saw a giant purple gift bag sitting on her front steps, which was moving around and making some strange noises. Cautiously she turned the bag over to shake out what was inside when a crazed cat jumped out and sunk his claws in her hands, causing her scream and try to shake the wild animal off before it finally released her and ran off yowling down the driveway. Shannon screamed and ran inside crying.

Chelsea and Ali were sitting in Ali's car laughing their heads off. They had somehow managed to pull of the stunt of the year without getting caught. They could still hear Tabby yowling angrily as he streaked on down the road for home. Lizzy was giggling in the backseat, still ducked down because she didn't want anyone to see her. Ali put the car in drive and sped off towards Bo and Chelsea's house, still laughing about it.

"That was too perfect!" Chelsea laughed. "It was better than I planned!"

_That'll teach her to mess with a Duke!_

"Oh goodness, I hadn't done that since I was eighteen!" Ali chuckled, shaking her head. She put a fist to her mouth and started coughing some. Her chest was hurting her again. "Lizzy, sit up in your seat, baby. Buckle up."

She coughed some more and Chelsea gave her a strange look. "Ya sick, Aunt Ali?"

"No, I'm fine," she smiled, not wanting her niece to worry. "All that laughing tickled my throat is all."

_Why do grown-ups always say that there's nothin' wrong when there is? Do they think that we younger ones can't handle the truth or somethin'?_

Chelsea didn't press the matter, although she winced everytime she heard her aunt cough some more.

"Eww, germs!" Lizzy squealed, covering her mouth with a hand.

Chelsea rolled her eyes at her cousin's childish behaviors and turned around in the seat. "Y'know, your hand has all them germs from the store an' there you are stickin' it on your mouth. Tsk tsk tsk."

"Guys, I'm fine, really. Sheesh. Who's up for ice cream?"

_And why do they always have to change the subject?_

* * *

The garage had been dead for another hour or so until finally a small black BMW pulled up to the gas pumps. As Luke promised, Jesse was allowed to go pump the gas for the driver. The boy ran up excitedly, his father close behind him. Bo had gone to the Boar's Nest for lunch, Luke staying there until later. 

The driver of the BMW stepped out, the first thing coming into view were some very shapely legs that were barely covered by some thin pantyhose and her bottom almost hanging out of a black miniskirt. Her top half was covered by a tight black haltertop and her dark raven hair hung loosely over her shoulders. She removed her shades which revealed gorgeous ocean-blue eyes. She may have been half his age, but Luke still thought her attractive.

"Hi, ma'am!" Jesse greeted as he halted in front of the beautiful stranger. Any other boy his age would've stood there and had his jaw hanging down, but Jesse was raised to keep things like that to himself. "Do you need 'er filled up?"

"I sure do, young man," the woman smiled. Judging from her accent, she came from somewhere North.

Jesse grabbed the gas pump and proceeded to fill the lady's car up. By this time, Luke had caught up, whom the woman smiled upon seeing.

"I hope ya don't mind, miss," he said. "He's been wantin' to do that all day."

"Of course I don't. I _love _children. He yours?"

"Yep, sure is. The name's Luke, what's yours?"

"Isabella Sinclair," the woman replied. "I'm heading for New Orleans, where my family lives."

"Really? Ya sound more New York than Cajun to me."

"I just graduated from NYU, so I guess I picked up their accent. I majored in business, and I'm hoping to start taking over our family's shipping business once I get back home."

"Wow, congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Dad!" Jesse called. "She's filled up!"

"Good job, pal!" Luke told him. "Ya wanna take the money from her?"

Jesse bounded up and asked, "That'll be ten dollars and twenty five cents, please."

Isabella smiled as she dug through her handbag. "My, what a little gentleman you are! You must have picked that up from your father, huh?" She looked up at the man with the baby blue eyes. Even though he was almost twice her age, he was still a rather handsome man. "There you are, ten dollars and a quarter exactly. And here's another quarter for yourself."

Jesse's eyes bugged out. "Gee, thanks, lady! Dad, I gotta tip!"

"Yeah, I see that."

"How long ya stayin' in Hazzard?" Jesse asked Isabella.

"Now, Jesse, that's not too polite---"

"It's perfectly all right, Luke," Isabella said. "Actually, I was planning on staying here for a few weeks. It seems like a nice town, it should give me some peace and quiet until I figure out my gameplan until I get home."

"Well, in that case, I suggest the Hazzard Hotel," Luke told her. "Ya just keep goin' down this road, then turn right at the post office and you'll see a big two story building with Hazzard Hotel written all over it."

"Why thank you. You've been most kind. Maybe I'll see you boys around sometime, huh?" she grinned, giving Luke a wink before shimmying off to her BMW.

"She was awful nice, Dad, I can't believe she paid me!" Jesse said once she had started her engine.

Luke felt a little funny. Married men shouldn't think the way he was thinking about that little hot rod in the expensive car.

"Yeah, she was nice," Luke told Jesse who decided to go back inside the garage. Luke stood there and shook his head to get the impure thoughts out of his head.

* * *

"Daddy, stop lettin' these people cut you off!" Rachel Strate argued as she sat in the front seat of Enos's police car. They were trying to turn off to get to the house but other drivers kept preventing them from doing so. "Just ram one an' ticket 'em from obstructin' justice!" 

"Now, Rachel, y'know I can't do that," Enos smiled, who waved at the next driver who drove in front of him. "They all must have somewhere real important to go if they're in such a hurry."

"Daddy, y'know there is such a thing as TOO nice, right?"

"Oh, no, there's never such a thing as that."

"Holy smokes, check out that BMW!" Rachel pointed as they watched the fancy car drive in front of them. "Remember that call we got 'bout a stolen one of them? I bet whoever's in there is the robber!"

"Just 'cause they have a BMW doesn't mean they stole it, Rachel."

"But that's no reason to not check it out. What if it IS the stolen one?"

"The one that we got the call on was white. That one's black."

"So? They coulda painted it! If I see that fella 'round town anywhere, I'm gonna interrogate the snot outta them."

Enos rolled his eyes and chuckled. Sometimes he thought his daughter was a little TOO ambitious.


	3. Secrets

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Three: Secrets**

_Sunday mornings consist of church time an' family get-togethers at lunch. Everybody always comes to my house since it's the biggest an' we all have a big potluck type dinner that keeps us full the rest of the day. The folks usually stay until about five in the evening before goin' on home. Daddy an' the other adults always hang out in the house, while we "kids" stay in the yard. _

_I wonder if all the grown-ups liked bein' around each other when they were kids. Like, if they actually enjoyed each other's company. 'Cause I get tired of bein' stuck as Lizzy an' Rachel's babysitter. Jesse's okay 'cause he can take care of himself . . .well, Rachel could too probably but she still needs someone's eye to watch on her. _

"Lizzy, if ya tell me 'bout your new dress _one more time_, I'm gonna go screamin' off a cliff!" Rachel fumed as they sat in Bo's front yard making cornhusk dolls.

_She'd probably do it too._

"Ya don't like it?" Lizzy frowned, her bottom lip poking out.

"You're not even wearin' it, how am I supposed to like it if I ain't seen it yet! Besides, I have a better story to tell."

_Here we go..._

"Yesterday in traffic, while Daddy was purposely lettin' people cut him off, I saw a stolen BMW drive by!"

Lizzy gasped. "Really? Did y'all arrest 'em?"

"No, Daddy said the stolen car was white, and that one was black. I say they painted it. I think I'm gonna question them if I see them again."

"I wanna help!" Lizzy exclaimed.

"No way, you'd probably screw it all up. An' ya don't know nothin' 'bout policin'."

"I wish my daddy was a cop," Lizzy frowned.

"I wish you'd both shut up," Chelsea finally said, tired of hearing the girls' banter.

_I don't understand girls. They blabber on an' on meaninglessly without ever reachin' a point. Of course guys do the same thing, but not so much as these two. _

"Kids, dinner's ready!" Daisy called from the front door. The announcement ended the arguing and the two girls ran up the stairs holding hands as if the best of friends. Jesse came running from around the corner, his hands filthy with dirt.

_Watch, I bet he's got somethin' in his pocket that's gonna freak Aunt Ali out. _

"Ya catch anything?" Daisy asked Jesse as he ran up the steps.

Jesse reached in his pocket and pulled out a small green lizard that he'd found. "I'm gonna keep 'im as a pet," he whispered before sticking it back inside his pocket and going inside. Daisy chuckled to herself when she followed him in.

Chelsea waited a minute before going inside. She heard Ali ask Jesse, "What do ya got in your pocket?"

Seconds later a scream was heard all over the house and all in the yard. Chelsea busted out laughing and she could hear Luke doing the same thing inside. Then she heard Ali fuss about how it was NOT funny and Luke had to take Jesse outside for a man-to-man talk about why it isn't a good idea to catch lizards and stick them in your pockets to show to Mom.

Chelsea gave her cousin a high-five as she passed him going into the house. She saw her aunt still clutching her chest from the shock of seeing her child shove a lizard in her face. She stifled a laugh, which was what she saw Bo doing as well.

Ali started coughing again like she had been doing earlier, only it sounded a bit worse. Daisy gave her a worried look.

"You okay, sugar?"

"I'm fine, Daisy, still in shock I guess," Ali told her, feeling that chest pain again. She was starting to feel a little shaky as well. "'Scuse me," she said, getting up out of the chair to head to the bathroom. Her coughing was getting worse and she shut the door to the restroom and grabbed some toilet paper to cough into in order to prevent germs from getting everywhere. Her eyes widened when she realized the paper had blood on it. She was coughing up blood. Holy Jesus. What was going on here?

She flushed the blood-stained paper down the toilet and rinsed her mouth out with tap water. She heard someone knock on the door, which spooked her a little bit. "Mom, you okay?" she heard Jesse ask. "I'm sorry I scared ya."

"I'm fine, sweetie," she told him, a little upset that she lied. Maybe she _should_ go to a doctor.

* * *

_Don't ya love holidays? Okay, so Labor Day isn't really a holiday per say, but we get out of school all the same. Which is ridiculous really. Shouldn't you be WORKING on LABOR day?_

Chelsea was still asleep in the early hours of the morning that calm, peaceful Labor Day. The birds hadn't even started chirping yet. So in the dead quiet of the day, the early morning predator quietly tip-toed her way into the sleeping girls room and did a "RAAAAH!" before pouncing stealthily right in the middle of the bed.

"AAAUGHH!" Chelsea screamed as she was woken abruptly from her dreams. Her fear turned to laughter when the intruder decided to go for a tickle attack.

"Mwahaha, caught ya off guard, mwahaha!"

"I wasn't expectin' you!" Chelsea managed to yell in between laughing as she tried to push her Aunt Evie off her. "Uncle Rosco, help!" she called out, knowing that he couldn't be too far behind his wife.

"Kheekhee, I don't think she needs any help," he said from the doorway.

"Not her_, me_!" Chelsea argued, managing to somehow get around her aunt's arms and slip onto the floor, then trying to crawl away only to get grabbed by the foot and pulled backwards. "Mercy! Mercy! I call mercy!" she begged, laughing too hard to fight back now.

"Now that you're done monkeyin' around, you can gimme a hug," Eve joked with her, wrapping her arms around her niece once she was off the floor. "Surprised?"

_Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?_

"Yeah, I'm surprised," Chelsea told her, going to give Rosco a hug. "Y'all were the last people on earth I expected to see. Where's Daddy?"

"He left already for work," Eve told her. "Guess who got early retirement?"

"You did?"

"Yeah!"

"But you're not even old, why would you want to stay home all day?"

Rosco gave Chelsea a feigned hurt look. "Oh, I'm not important enough to stay home for, huh?"

"You know I didn't mean it that way," Chelsea told him, then noticing the brief look of sadness that washed over her aunt's face.

_What's up with that? Don't tell me she's hidin' somethin' from me like Aunt Ali is . . .

* * *

_

Chelsea was getting some of her visiting relatives bags out of the trunk of their car when one that was not zipped all the way opened up and some stuff fell out. She rolled her eyes and proceeded to pick up the dropped items. One in particular caught her attention---a prescription bottle. Overloaded with curiosity, especially when it came to her family's health problems, she decided to look at the name of it.

Verelan. That was the brand name. Some kind of verapamil medicine. It had Rosco's name on it so she could only assume that it was for him.

_What the heck is this stuff for? Is he bad sick or somethin'? Is that way Aunt Evie retired so early, so she could take care of him?_

She heard someone open the front door so she shoved the bottle back in the bag so that no one would find out that she knew about whatever kind of health problems that her aunt and uncle obviously didn't want anyone to know about.


	4. Diminishing Health

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Four: Diminishing Health**

Ali stormed out of the hospital, wiping tears from her eyes and fussing under her breath about how it could not be possible that she was THAT sick. "Stupid quack," she muttered, fumbling with her car keys. "Should be a law against hiring fake doctors like HIM. What does HE know anyway?"

Still in a sour mood, she cranked the car and flew out of the parking area to head to Bo's house where she had left Lizzy under Eve's care while she "ran some errands". Jesse was spending his Labor Day with Luke at the garage. Nobody knew Ali had gone to the hospital that morning---nor WOULD they find out. Not unless the doctor was right in his diagnosis.

"Ridiculous," she continued to say to herself. "Not me, nothing like that could happen to me. Lung cancer! Ha! Just because I smoked like a chimney when I was younger does NOT mean I can have lung cancer NOW! Jesus, I'm startin' to sound like Eve now!"

Dr. Anders had explained to her that the tests had come up positive for lung cancer. Adenocarcinoma, if you wanted to get technical. It explained the blood, the shortness of breath, coughing, chest pain, tiredness, and weight loss she had been having for a while now. He said that the cancer had spread to the chest wall, her diaphragm, and possibly even near the walls of the heart. Stage 2B, he called it. Surgery would be needed. That was when she called him an idiot to his face and stormed out.

"It could be the stress of raising a family!" Ali kept on fussing as she swerved to take a right. "I don't have freakin' lung cancer!"

But in the back of her mind, the thought that something seriously wrong with her health haunted her and the more she thought about it, the more she pushed it back. Her chest started hurting again. Stess, it had to be stress. Not something serious like lung cancer. Not HER.

* * *

_Ever notice how things are different around the house when visitors come over? Normally, our house smells like cat food and dirty laundry not to mention looks like a pig sty. We make some effort to straighten up on Sundays when the folks come for dinner, but it's when Aunt Evie comes that things get in tip-top condition. The dishes are sparklin', you can actually SEE the bedroom floors, 'bout five inches of dust from the mantel disappears over night an' the whole house smells like chocolate chip cookies. I'm sure Daddy gets tired of havin' another woman in the house, but he doesn't complain about the homely touch. _

"Hold still, Tabby!" Lizzy scolded as she tried to heave the giant tomcat into a baby doll stroller. Tabby growled in protest---he didn't appreciate having been outfitted in a pink frilly doll gown only five minutes before.

"Hey, nobody harrasses my cat 'cept ME!" Chelsea called out from across the yard where she was practicing her batting swings.

"REEEER!" Tabby mewled, digging his claws into the side of the stroller and tearing out across the yard still wearing the pink gown.

"HEY, GET BACK HERE!" Lizzy screamed, taking out after the aggravated cat who had just made refuge in a tall pine tree---and he had every intention of staying there.

_Poor Tab, I'd 've done the same thing. Only I would've scratched her before runnin' off._

Rosco had been asleep on the front porch while reading the paper until her heard Lizzy's screaming, which was when he jumped himself awake and looked around confusedly and trying to figure out what was going on. When he realized it wasn't any emergency, he went back to reading the paper---the comics section, naturally.

Eve stepped out holding a spatula and wearing her "Kiss the Cook" apron and hollered out, "Hey, who wants hot fudge brownies!"

Lizzy automatically forgot that Tabby had stolen her doll dress and high-tailed it to the porch. "I do! I do!"

"Ooh, me too! Me too!" Rosco inputted, tugging on Eve's apron to make sure she heard him.

"If there's any left when the kids get done, I MIGHT let you have one," Eve smiled at him, turning around to go back inside with Lizzy right behind her.

_That translates into "I better not catch ya sneakin' any behind my back." But she knows that he always goes in there and steals a bite when she's not lookin'. If she catches him, she'll threaten to stick 'im on some form of diet, although she never acts on it. I learned that routine when I stayed with 'em over the summer a few years back. I can promise you that he'll get his hands on one sometime today._

Chelsea went up the stairs and shook her head at her uncle. "Why ya bother askin' if ya know you're gonna get a piece?"

He shrugged, giving her his trademark ear-to-ear grin. "I just like to bother her sometimes I reckon."

Chelsea rolled her eyes playfully. "Well, hurry up then, you'll want one while they're warm."

Rosco couldn't exactly get up as fast as he used to could, now that he'd aged a number of years but he always managed to get himself up without help. That was why it surprised Chelsea that when he was halfway out of the chair, he almost immediately collapsed back down in it with his hand pressed over his heart and a pained expression on his face.

Horrified, Chelsea asked, "Uncle Rosco?" When he started breathing heavily and shaking all over she ran into the kitchen yelling, "Aunt Evie, somethin's wrong!"

As if she had practiced for this, Eve firmly instructed Lizzy to stay put in the ktichen while she ordered Chelsea to fix her a glass of milk. Eve ran off to the guest room while Chelsea did this (all the while Lizzy asking what was wrong) and then hollered for her to meet her outside. Chelsea hurried fast as she could, scared to death and not quite understanding what the deal was. Half the milk she poured ended up on the countertop and dribbled on down to the floor.

Eve grabbed the glass hurriedly, shoved the front door open, and started talking in a low calm voice to her husband, who had started coughing while the girls were in the house. "Open your mouth, sweetie, open it, open it up," she told him, trying to pry his mouth open so she could get the pill in there. He was shaking so hard now that when she put the rim of the glass against his lips, the milk went pouring down his chin and on down his neck. Chelsea could only stand there terrified.

"Small sips, take small sips, easy, easy. Swallow it, now. Swallow it, don't you spit that out, swallow it," she instructed, keeping her hand over his mouth to prevent him from coughing up the pill. Finally she felt him relax a little bit as the shaking began to grow less and told Chelsea to go check on Lizzy for her.

Wide-eyed, Chelsea silently went back into the house, greeted with Lizzy asking, "What's goin' on, Chelsea? Did somethin' happen?"

"I don't know, Lizzy, just be quiet okay?" Chelsea snapped without really meaning to.

Meanwhile, Rosco was getting over his ordeal and was beginning to start breathing normally again. Eve had her head rested on his, relieved nothing serious but she still had a few tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"Still hurts," he whispered, pressing her hand up against his heart to help relieve some of the pressure he was feeling.

"It always does afterwards," she reminded him, giving him a short kiss on the top of his head. "You forgot to take it earlier, didn't you?"

He looked a little sheepish. "I didn't mean to . . ."

Eve sighed. That was the reason for her early retirement. Rosco was getting to where he couldn't remember little things such as taking a pill when he was supposed to. She couldn't leave him alone at the house in his condition with no one to remind him or respond to an emergency like the one they had just now.

"It's all right, baby, it's over now," she told him, giving him a small hug around the neck.

* * *

_Out of curiosity, I surfed the internet to see what that medication was for and checked out the symptoms Uncle Rosco had earlier. The closest I came to was "Coronary Artery Spasm". Was that some form of small heart attack or somethin'? I didn't know what to make of that, so I just went to bed worryin' if it was anythin' fatal. An' as for Aunt Ali, I know there has to be somethin' wrong with her. She came home from "runnin' her errands" in an upset manner. She doesn't normally do that._


	5. Seducer

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Five: Seducer**

"Dad, I need a refill," Jesse told Luke, who was at present sipping at his beer. The boys, including Bo, were hanging out at the Boar's Nest on their lunch break.

"I'll get it, sport," Bo said, getting his nephews glass that had been filled with Coca-Cola, since he was obviously not old enough for alcohol.

"Hey, Dad, could we play catch later when we get home?"

"I don't see why---" he stopped in mid-sentence when he saw a familiar, not to mention beautiful, face enter the Boar's Nest. Isabella. "Not," he finished slowly as their eyes met and sauntered her way over to their table.

"Hello, boys," she said with a soft voice. "Mind if I join you?"

"Hi, lady!" Jesse smiled, recognizing the woman that had given him a tip for pumping her gas the other day.

"Hey, Isabella, ummm, yeah, you can sit here," Luke said, without even knowing why he did it.

At this time, Bo had come back and handed his nephew his drink but not before noticing the beautiful stranger sitting with them. "Well, Luke, who's your friend here?" he smiled politely.

"Isabella Sinclair," she told him before Luke could even open his mouth. "And who might you be?"

"This is my cousin, Bo," Luke informed her as Bo sat back in his seat and shook a hand with Isabella. "He runs the garage with me."

"Pleasure meeting you, Bo," Isabella smiled at him, getting a wide one back.

"Same here," the blond returned. Ever since Rachel had died, he hadn't really associated himself with many women due to the fact that he was still in love with his wife, but he was still ever charming and a gentleman to boot.

"Uh, do ya need anythin' to drink, Isabella?" Luke asked, not knowing why he had done that either.

She gave him an award-winning smile that showed all her pearly whites. "If ya don't mind, Luke. Scotch on the rocks."

Jesse didn't seem to notice that this woman was flirting with his father, but Bo sure did. A suspicious feeling creeped up in the back of his mind about this chick, so when Luke got up to get her Scotch, he stretched out casually and said,

"So, Jesse, tell your ol' Uncle Bo how school's doin'?"

The boys shrugged and said, "Y'know, the usual."

Isabella got a little confused. "Wait, how are you his uncle? I thought you and Luke were _cousins_."

"Oh, we are, but see his wife Ali's the sister of MY wife, Rachel. So that makes me Uncle Bo. Right, sport?"

"Right."

"How's your mom been anyhow?"

"I guess she's okay. She's been acting kinda funny lately though. I think it's her woman problems," Jesse told him, getting Bo to laugh at the thought of Jesse even knowing what "woman problems" were in the first place.

Isabella was starting to get a little uncomfortable and Bo noticed. Good, she needed to be. Luke was a married man and didn't need some prissy girl from the North coming down and screwing that up. At this point, Luke came back with her Scotch which she politely accepted with a more modest smile.

"I saw Enos comin' in on my way back," Luke said off-handedly. "He's probably goin' to come over here in a minute."

"Does he got Rachel with 'im?" Jesse asked.

"YOUR wife?" Isabella asked Bo.

"No, Enos's kid, she's named after my wife. She passed away when our daughter was a year old," he told her, getting the old aching feeling that he felt when someone asked about her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized in a sincere voice.

"It's all right."

"Hi, Jesse!" Rachel Strate exclaimed upon reaching their table. She saw Isabella and gave her a funny look.

"Who the heck are you?"

"Rachel, be polite!" Enos very slightly scolded before smiling at Isabella. "Howdy, ma'am. I'm Sheriff Strate an' this is my daughter, Rachel."

"Isabella Sinclair," she smiled at the man. Rachel started glaring daggers at the woman.

"I've never seen you before, you some kinda relative or somethin'?"

"No, I'm just passin' through here for a few days, maybe longer," she smiled, giving Luke a quick look before focusing back on the inquisitive child.

Rachel had an eye like a hawk and a brain like one too, so she started burning holes in Isabella's eyes when she had her attention again. Then she said, "Jesse, wanna go outside? Smells funny in here." She said the last part while glaring at Isabella and then she turned to leave the building with Jesse beside her.

* * *

"Who was that woman in there with y'all?" Rachel asked upon exiting the building.

"Her name's Isabella, she bought gas the other day at the garage. She gave me a quarter for a tip."

"Is that any reason for her to sit with y'all? It's not like y'all saved her life an' she owes y'all her company. She seemed suspicious to me."

"_Everyone _seems suspicious to you, Rach."

Rachel rolled her eyes at her cousin's gullibility at strangers. They were the same age and in the same class at school, but you would think that Rachel was older than Jesse just from their personalities. She decided not to say anything about this Isabella character making eyes at Luke. She didn't want to upset her cousin for no reason.

"Whatever," she simply stated, giving the parking lot a full scan when her eyes landed on something that she had seen just a few days earlier. "Holy smokes, I don't believe it!" she exclaimed, taking off in a diagonal direction across the lot.

"What is it?" Jesse asked, beginning to slowly jog after her. Rachel was much smaller than he was and in better shape, so she beat him by a mile when they reached a shiny black BMW.

"This is it! The stolen car!" she said excitedly.

"What? No, Rach, that's Isabella's car," Jesse panted once he reached her, putting a hand to his stomach where his abs had started running.

Her eyes flashed. "Ha! I knew she looked suspicious to me for a reason!"

"You're crazy."

"Oh, am I? I bet if I scratched this black paint, there'd be white up underneath it."

"You lost me..."

"The stolen car was white, but _I _say the thief painted the car to hide it. So I'm sayin' that there's white paint under this black."

"Don't be scratchin' up that car!" Jesse cried, his eyes bugged out at the very idea. "You're goin' to get in big-time trouble!"

"Trouble's my middle name," Rachel reminded him. She then looked around to see if anyone was looking before easily opening the unlocked door to the passenger side of the car. Jesse looked like he was going to have a conniptions fit.

"What in tarnation are you doin'!"

She opened the glovebox and started searching through the papers. "Seeing if her name matches these registration papers. Ha, they _don't_. Some guy named Gary Howell's car."

"It could be a relative or someone's."

"Don't be a moron, Jesse, this car is HOT." She looked up at the main entrance of the Boar's Nest. "Crap, they're comin' out, move outta the way!"

Rachel stuffed the papers back in the glovebox and scrambled out of the car, shutting the door and taking off after Jesse where they were hiding underneath a nearby truck. They watched all four adults walking out together, Enos heading towards his patrol car and calling for Rachel (who wasn't budging until she saw what she wanted to see), and Bo headed towards Luke's truck while Luke walked Isabella to her car.

"Thanks for letting me sit with you," Isabella said sweetly as she started digging her keys out of her small purse. "It was real nice of you."

"Shucks, it's no problem, ma'am," Luke smiled at her, unaware that Jesse and Rachel were watching them.

"Well, maybe I'll see you around sometime, huh?" She gave him a quick kiss before getting inside her car and then waving off as she drove out of the lot, leaving Luke standing there wondering how in _heaven's _name could he allow something like that to happen, shook his head and headed to the truck and calling for Jesse.

Jesse and Rachel's jaws were dropped. "Hey, she kissed my dad!" he finally said once Luke was out of sight. "My mom would _kill _her if she knew 'bout that."

"I told you she was strange," Rachel told him, growing even more distrustful of Isabella as the minutes crept. "I didn't want to tell ya, but I saw her givin' your dad looks while we were inside."

Jesse looked about ready to cry. "But, what about my mom? Does this mean they're gettin' divorced?"

"Don't be silly! It's not like _he _kissed her, _she _made the first move and your dad didn't even return it. 'Sides, they just met. Be kinda stupid to get divorced just 'cause some chick you've only seen twice pops off an' kisses ya."

"RACHEL!" Enos was hollering now from his squad car.

"Oh, I gotta go!" Rachel said, crawling out from under the truck. "Look, don't let your dad know we saw them. He might not like that very much. Just keep your mouth shut about everything, including my theory that her car is the stolen one. I'll talk to ya later, bye!"

Jesse crawled out slowly after she had already gone, rather confused on what he just witnessed. He couldn't look Luke in the eyes once he got in the truck and kinda sat closer to Bo's side than he normally did.

"What's wrong, sport?" Bo asked, patting his nephew on the back.

"I don't feel good," he told him. "Stomach kinda hurts."

"Ya need us to go pick somethin' up for ya?" Luke asked him.

"No, I just wanna lay down for a while," Jesse told him, his stomach actually starting to hurt him.


	6. To Good Health an' Good Times

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Six: "To Good Health an' Good Times"**

_Back to school, back to "business". Back to pretty preppy chicks with pigtails and mini-skirts. Back to guys that are perverted beyond reason. Back to Mr. McNeil's English class. Have ya ever met Mr. McNeil? I don't think ya have, so lemme tell ya somethin'. This man eats nails for breakfast, he's so tough._

Terrence McNeil, sixty-five years of age with a full head of thick gray hair, eyes that shined with mischief when he called on an unsuspecting student for the answer to a question that nobody knew the answer to and turned all little children and grown adults into a block of ice with his stare, walked into the noisy classroom at precisely seven o'clock and fifty-nine minutes and thirty-six seconds in the morning. The minute his shadow was seen on the adjacent wall by the door, the entire classroom turned as silent as a grave. The only noise made during this heart-stopping moment in time was the sound of the squeaky rolling chair that Mr. McNeil moved back from the desk so he could have a seat. Then the sound of his briefcase opening bounced off the walls and rang in the students' ears.

"How was Labor Day?" he asked in a monotone voice, not looking up at the students.

Somebody coughed in the back of the room and that was the only reply he got.

Mr. McNeil cleared his throat. "My, aren't y'all talkative this mornin'. Cat must've gotten all y'alls tongues."

_I don't know 'bout everybody else, but my cat sure got Shannon Cooper's_.

"Since no one wants to talk about their thrillin' weekend, I guess I'll just have to throw an assignment at y'all."

An almost synchronized "AWWW!" filled the room. Everyone dreaded the words "assignment" coming out of that man's mouth. Pop quizzes were another hated word in the class.

"Don't get your tails knotted, it's a semester-long project. I want y'all to write me an essay--"

_What . . . a . . . surprise. Every English teacher we've had so far has made us write an essay. Of course, we've never had Mr. McNeil for English before, so I got a feelin' that he's gonna make it as hard a topic as he can._

"I expect this essay have intelligent vocabulary, words that ninth-graders should know and understand. I don't want baby talk, you're all in high school now an' I want y'all to write like you're in high school. I want a minimum of three pages, typed and double spaced using twelve inch font and one inch margins on all sides. I want y'all to write me about life lessons that you learn throughout the course of the semester."

_Life lessons? What the heck does that mean? _

"Any questions before we continue on with our lecture?"

Nobody dared raised their hands, out of fear of being mocked or yelled out.

_Like I said, he's got to eat nails for breakfast._

_

* * *

_

Ali had been unusually quiet at the dinner table the past few times the family sat down to dinner. Jesse had been silent himself, though he tried to hide it. What he and Rachel had seen yesterday confused him and he didn't quite know what to think about it. Lizzy, oblivious to everything going on, jabbered on about her day at school to everybody that was there.

Luke cleared his throat, the silence from the other members of the family beginning to drive him crazy. "Hon, ya gone to see your sister yet?"

"I saw her a little yesterday when I dropped Lizzy off," she said bluntly, stirring her fork in her steamed greens. She wondered if cancer looked like that. "Y'know she retired?"

"Kinda young for all that ain't she?"

"Somethin' happened yesterday at Uncle Bo's house but Chelsea wouldn't tell me what it was," Lizzy stated matter-of-factly. "Somethin' to do with Uncle Rosco I think, but I don't know."

"Well, he's kinda old, sweetie," Luke told her. "When ya get older, ya tend to have more problems."

Ali couldn't help but think about how she had something wrong with her and she wasn't even forty yet. Her chest started hurting at the thought and the need to cough felt immediately. Luke noticed that she had grown pale and looked a little confused when she excused herself rather quickly.

"She did that at Uncle Bo's the other day," Jesse said quietly, not looking his father in the eye when he said so.

"Did what?" Lizzy asked.

The sound of coughing entered everybody's ears. Luke got up to go and check on her and knocked quietly on the door. "Ali, honey, you all right in there?"

"I'm fine!" she said aggravatedly before another fit of coughing took over.

"Ya don't sound fine," he insisted, opening the door and walking in to see his wife nearly gagging on herself from coughing so much. "Ali?" he asked, sincerely worried about her condition which was heighened when he realized that there was blood on the toilet paper that she was coughing into. "_Ali_!"

"I said I'm fine, Luke," she continued to tell him, although she knew he wouldn't buy it.

"Baby, you're sick, you need to see a doctor!" he exclaimed in a low voice, not wanting to upset the kids. "How long has this been goin' on?"

"I don't know, the blood didn't start comin' 'til the other day," she told him, turning on the faucet to scoop water into her hand and rinse her mouth out.

"How can not tell me about this? You're obviously sick, how can you act like nothin's wrong?"

"Because nothing _is _wrong! It's just stress," she told him stubbornly.

"Everybody gets stressed out at times, but not everybody coughs up blood," Luke stated. "You're seeing a doctor."

She rested her palms against the counter and sighed. She supposed she would have to tell him. "I already did."

"What?" he asked, shocked that she hadn't told him. "An' ya didn't tell me? When?"

"Yesterday, when I dropped Lizzy off. The doctor said . . . he said . . ." Her face crinkled up and she started to softly cry. "He said I have lung cancer, Luke."

Luke was paralyzed with shock for a moment. Lung cancer? Didn't people die from that? "Oh, honey," he said softly, taking her into his arms so she could cry on his shoulder. "Ya should've told me sooner . . ."

"I know," she sobbed quietly. "But I didn't want to believe that it was true, that it could happen to _me_. I'm scared, Luke. He said I needed surgery. And maybe even chemotherapy or somethin'. I'm so scared."

"Me too, honey, me too . . ."

* * *

The Boar's Nest was pretty busy for a Tuesday night. The adults were all crowded at one table while the kids occupied another one, playing a game of Uno that Rachel had gotten for her birthday that year. 

_I can't wait 'til I get to sit with the adults. I wish they would let me right now. I'm gettin' tired of Rachel's theory on the BMW lady "Isabella", Lizzy mouthin' off about whatever comes to mind, an' I don't even know what's botherin' Jesse. I've never seen him so quiet before. _

"Guys, I think my mom's sick," Jesse finally admitted to the girls once Lizzy excused herself to the bathroom. "Her and Dad were talkin' real quiet an' serious last night at dinner, an' I think it had to do with her coughin' all the time."

_Ha, I knew somethin' was wrong with her! _

"How do ya know they weren't discussin' what we saw yesterday?" Rachel spat out.

"What are you talkin' about?" Chelsea asked confusedly.

"That BMW lady gave Luke a big wet one."

"_Rachel_!" Jesse hissed, which was very unlike him.

Chelsea's jaw dropped. "WHAT?"

_Uncle Luke is one of the most serious, dedicated, non-spontaneous guy I know an' he let some random chick come up an' kiss him? What in heaven's name is goin' on with this family. Aunt Ali's sick, Uncle Rosco's sick, Uncle Luke's gone AWOL, Aunt Evie's trying to keep the stress of Uncle Rosco bein' sick to herself, Jesse's actin' depressed, Rachel's lost her mind, an' the only people that are still normal are me, Daddy, an' Lizzy. Well, Daisy an' Enos might still be normal hopefully but I don't see how when they got Rachel for a daughter._

"We saw them yesterday out in the parkin' lot," Rachel continued.

"No way, I _don't _believe it," Chelsea said truthfully, all though her mind was racing at the very thought. "Did he kiss her back?"

"Hey, quit talkin' about my dad, guys!" Jesse pleaded. "I can't hardly look at him as it is."

"No," Rachel answered Chelsea' question. "Shh, Lizzy's comin'."

"What were y'all talkin' about?" Lizzy asked upon returning to her seat.

_If there's one thing you should know about Lizzy, it's that she can't keep secrets. Well, neither can Rachel but she will if ya make her swear on an oath. Lizzy would tell anyways._

"Nothin'," Chelsea told her.

_Adults are funny people. They get into the biggest messes with each other. Makes my life seem a lot simpler, minus the McNeil essay. Life lessons, huh? Maybe I oughta write on how I learned that adults are the most bizarre creatures I have ever come into contact with. What, that would fall under biology, huh?_

"Hey, Chels, come over here," Bo invited his daughter, waving her over to sit with the other adults.

_Thank you, Daddy_.

"You're so lucky," Rachel said enviously. "I'd love to get an earful of what adults think are so important to talk about."

Chelsea rolled her eyes and hopped over to sit next to Bo who wrapped his arm around her. "What's the honor of my joinin' y'all?" she asked everybody.

"Well, you're fourteen an' we figured you're old enough to sit with the big dogs now," Bo picked at her.

"We even held an election. We all voted _yay_ if ya couldn' tell," Luke grinned.

"It's about time, that's all I can say," Chelsea told them.

_It is so weird seein' Uncle Luke right now. Amazin' how one comment by one person can make your outlook on them change. Okay, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, I'm sure he didn't intentionally lead this Isabella chick on._

"Come on, Chels, enlighten us," Eve said. "Remind us what high school's like."

"Yeah, I skipped the last two years, I need a refresher course," Ali laughed along with everyone else.

_Just lookin' at them now, all happy an' smilin', you'd never know anything was wrong with all of them. It's kinda depressin'._

"I have this stupid essay to write by the end of the semester," Chelsea told them. "About lessons in life that I learn during this half of the year."

"UGH!" everybody let out, except Enos who said, "Hey, I enjoyed doing those."

"You always were a dipstick, Enos," Rosco said good-naturedly, getting a laugh outta everyone.

"Have ya thought about what ya want to do when ya graduate?" Daisy asked Chelsea.

_HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, that's a good one, Daisy._

Chelsea shrugged. "Not really. I hate school as it is, why torment myself with more of it?"

"She sounds like you, Ali," Eve noted.

"Take from me, kiddo, go to college," Ali told her niece. "I wish I had. I coulda been a nurse or somethin' if I'd really wanted to."

The word "nurse" made her think about her health problem, which brought a lump to her throat but she decided to keep it in. She didn't everyone else to become stressed out over her. Eve thought about her own job as a "nurse" and intertwined her fingers through her husband's.

"Uncle Rosco didn't go an' he did just fine," Chelsea pointed out.

"Sweetie, cops don't make that much money," Rosco told her, remembering his piddly paychecks that he had back when he was Hazzard County Sheriff. He also remembered how those tiny paychecks got him involved with J.D. "Boss" Hogg and got him down the crooked path of life, which he tried hard to forget day after day. "Take it from one who knows."

"I wanted to go to college myself," Daisy inputted. "That's one reason why I started workin' here in the first place, but now I just stay at home and sew."

_I forgot to tell y'all that Daisy sews dresses an' such for the ladies here in town. She works at her house an' uses her own equipment an' everything. She's made me some curtains an' pillows for me before and a few shirts as well._

"Am I the only one that went?" Eve asked, looking at everybody at the table.

"Yes," everyone said at the same time then laughing again.

"You're the ugly ducklin' of the family," Bo joked, everybody still laughing.

"I think you're a swan, dear," Rosco told her, patting her hand softly.

"Awww!" everyone said simultaneously.

"Oh shut up," Eve grinned, blushing now.

"Hey, what does everyone say to a toast?" Luke asked, raising his beer glass.

_What's up with adults bein' random all the time?_

"What on earth for?" Bo chuckled.

Luke shrugged. "Good health an' good times," he said. He was thinkin' of Ali when he said it but he also generically wished everybody the same.

Eve squeezed Rosco's hand. "Sounds good," she agreed, everybody else mumbling their approval and raising whatever drink they had in their hand.

"To good health an' good times," Luke said in a sincere voice, looking around at everybody.

"Cheers!" Bo said, everybody clanging their glasses together, sloshing beverages on the table, and then taking a sip of their respective drinks.

_Y'know, kids an' adults are pretty different an' I don't mean just in ages and sizes. Kids speak their minds, they say whatever they want when they want. Adults . . . they tend to keep things to themselves. Ya either have to pry it outta them or just read between the lines to find out what's goin' on. Boy, bein' an adult sounds tough don't it?_


	7. Let's Get Somethin' Straight

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Seven: Let's Get Somethin' Straight**

"Dr. Anders, am I goin' to die?"

The question came as soon as the doctor entered the room, which quite startled him. "Mrs. Duke, if you go through surgery and survive, you have over forty-percent chance of living afterwards."

"Oh my God," Ali moaned, putting a palm to her forehead whilie Luke held the other one.

"What kinda surgery are we talkin' about here, doc?" Luke asked for her.

"The cancer is so wide-spread, that I would suggest going through laser surgery to remove as much as we can and then we could discuss the possibility of radiation or chemotherapy."

"Laser surgery, what's that?"

"Basically what happens is that while you are under the effects of anesthesia, the laser is precisely focused on the cancerous cells and well---to put it bluntly, the laser heats up the cells like a sort of microwave and the cells "burst", so to speak. If we are unable to remove all or a majority of the cells, we may have to look towards alternative procedures---the chemo or radiation therapy or maybe even a lobectomy if necessary."

"You're goin' to cut out my lungs!"

"Honey, calm down, that's only a last resort. What are the risks of this laser surgery?"

"There's the possibility that she would feel pain, more likely than not. There's also the risk of infection, some bleeding, scarring, discoloration of the skin, things to that nature. I would most likely suggest radiation therapy if the surgery does not remove all the cancerous cells. Cancer cells multiply faster than the other cells and are more at risk from radiation, so the healthy cells of your body are less at risk, except for hair and skin. Should you have to go through with the therapy, you would experience hair loss, some redness or lesions of the skin. The therapy shrinks the remaining cancer cells so that they can not cause any further damage to your lungs."

"I can't believe this is happening to me," Ali sighed. "I'm gonna look like a freak when this is all over."

"A _healthy _freak, though," Luke said, giving her a kiss on the side of her head.

"When can we start all of this?"

"Dr. Moncrief will be in charge of the surgery, a good well-respected colleague of mine. He has nothing planned for next week if you should choose to go through with surgery."

"What do ya say?" Luke asked Ali. "It's your choice."

She shrugged. "What choice do I have?"

* * *

_While Uncle Luke an' Aunt Ali went to "run errands", we were all still in school. Afterwards, Jesse an' Lizzy had to come to my house until they got back from their "errands". Why do adults always refer to important matters that require bein' gone for a while as "runnin' errands" anyways? Jesse's got it in his head that they went to see a marriage counselor. Lizzy's completely clueless to everything goin' on, but I have just about had it with bein' in the dark. So I decided I would approach the one person I KNEW had no secrets of his own to hide._

"Daddy?"

Bo looked up from the evening news that he was watching on the television and faced his daughter who was looking at him from the doorway. "What's wrong, punkin?"

Chelsea went to go sit by him. "Daddy, I'm a young adult. I think I have a right to know what's goin' on in this family."

Bo starting laughing. "Chelsea, what're you talkin' about? There's no deep dark secrets."

"You know what I'm talkin' about," she insisted. "It's completely obvious. Aunt Ali's sick an' won't tell anyone, Rachel said she saw some chick kissin' Uncle Luke, Uncle Rosco's got somethin' wrong with him, an'---"

"WHAT? That girl kissed LUKE?"

Chelsea blinked. "You didn't know about that?"

_Wow, I always thought they had this freaky psychic twin thing goin' on. Like they knew what the other was doin' at all times or whatever._

"I don't believe that guy, he let that bimbo do that? Oh, I'm gonna have to have a word with that boy," Bo stated, getting off the couch to grab the keys to his car.

"Daddy, he's just gonna ask how you found out about it! Then Rachel an' Jesse'll get in trouble for spyin'!"

"Wait, Jesse saw this?" Bo asked. "No wonder he was so quiet the other day, he thinks his dad's cheatin' on his mom!"

"Yeah, an' while we're on the subject, what is wrong with Aunt Ali? She's got to have somethin' wrong with her, she's _sick_."

"I don't know, baby, but I guarantee I'm gonna get me some answers when I talk to a certain cousin of mine."

_Yeah, he'll get some answers all right. Not that he'll share them with me, but I think maybe I can drag them outta 'im._

* * *

Luke was a little surprised to hear Bo banging on his front door. When the dark-haired cousin answered the door, Bo grabbed his collar and drug him out onto the porch and closed the door.

"Bo, what on earth?"

"What is wrong with you?" Bo hissed. "Have ya lost your mind?"

"What're ya talkin' about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talkin' about, Luke!" he spat out. "I just heard about you an' that pretty Isabella lady havin' a little smoochy-smoochy."

Luke's eyes bugged out. "WHAT? Who told you---"

"It don't matter WHO, it's the fact that I heard it in the first place."

"Bo, I swear, I didn't encourage her. _She _kissed _me_. That's it."

Bo released his grip on his cousin's collar and started to relax. "Just as long as ya didn't plan it."

"Of course not! Ya think I would deliberately put myself in a situation that would be considered cheatin' on my wife? NO! I don't know what happened to cause that. Yeah, she's real pretty an' nice, but that's as far as it goes."

"A kiss goes a long way."

"Dang it, Bo, I didn't ask her to do it! She must've thought I was comin' onto her by bein' nice an' thought it was . . . well, a _hint _I guess. Look, don't tell anyone, I don't want some rumor goin' around. It would kill us."

Bo noticed the distant look in his cousin's eyes. "Luke, Chelsea said she thinks somethin's wrong with Ali. I didn't know what to tell her 'cause I didn't know myself. Is there anything goin' on?"

Luke sighed. "Well," he started off, running a hand through his hair. "Bo, I don't think Ali really wants anyone to know, but I have a feeling that everyone's gonna find out sooner or later anyways, so----she's got lung cancer."

The fact nearly knocked Bo off his feet. "Oh my God," he said, putting a hand to his mouth. "Oh my God, Luke."

"I know, I thought the same thing. I just found out not too long ago myself."

"Do the kids know?"

"Not yet."

"Jesus. What're y'all gonna do?"

"The doctor said surgery, then afterwards maybe radiation therapy and hopefully not a lobectomy."

"Holy smokes, I can't believe this," Bo admitted, wiping his brow.

"Look, don't tell anybody okay. You're the only other one that knows besides the doctor. I'll let Ali tell anyone else if she wants to."

"She can't expect to go to a hospital an' have surgery without anyone findin' out. Especially the kids, they'll notice that she's gone. Ya reckon she'd tell Eve?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know, cousin. They seem to be gettin' along all right though, so she might let her in on it if they get alone together. How long are Eve an' Rosco stayin' anyway?"

"I guess the usual two weeks that they usually stay. Maybe longer, Chelsea said somethin' about Rosco bein' sick lately."

"Yeah, Lizzy said the same thing Monday at dinner."

Bo just shook his head. "Everyone's just gettin' sick ain't they? I don't know if I could handle anybody else in this family dyin'. We went through enough of that thirteen years ago."

Luke remembered Bo's wife Rachel's death along with their Uncle Jesse's that had been the beginning of a reign of terror aimed at the family. "Neither could I, Bo. Neither could I."


	8. In the Blink of an Eye

**A/N: Warning: This one's sad...it made ME cry...

* * *

**

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Eight: In the Blink of an Eye**

**Two O'Clock PM**

"Look at the cute little puppy!" Eve exclaimed as she stared into the window of the pet shop that had just opened recently in town. Her and Rosco were ambling around town like they normally did when they came for a visit. "What a cutie! Rosco, ain't he precious?"

Doberman puppies just didn't compare to a Bassett Hound puppy, but he agreed with her as he usually did.

"Chelsea's wantin' a puppy so bad, maybe we oughta get her one before Christmas," Eve commented before tapping the glass to get the puppies to stand up against the glass and scratch it with their tiny claws. She then tugged her husband along down the sidewalk so they could continue with their leisurely walk. "Somethin' wrong, darling?"

"What makes ya say that?"

"You're bein' awful quiet today, so I know something's botherin' you."

"Oh, it's nothin', Eve," he said a little embarrassedly.

"Rosco," she drew out.

"Well," he started, getting quiet again. Something was in fact bothering him, _had _been bothering him, but he didn't quite now how to say it without upsetting her. "Honeypie, it's just that---well, I---we both know I've been havin' problems, an' I---I don't think I'm gonna last much longer---"

Eve stopped directly, which made him stop since she was holding onto his hand, and she said in a serious tone, "Rosco Coltrane, don't be talkin' like that. You've been pullin' through just fine since you got that medicine an'---"

"Sweetie," he interrupted. "It don't matter. It don't. I ain't as young as I used to be, an' sooner or later I ain't gonna be around anymore."

"Will you stop talkin' that way?"

"Honey, we gotta face facts here. I love ya more than anythin' on this good green earth, an' I don't like the idea of you bein' all alone an' depressed when 'the day' arrives. That's why I think we oughta move back to Hazzard."

"What? What on earth does that have to do with anything?"

"Baby, we don't have any family in Tennessee, they're all here. I want you around them when I go so ya won't be by yourself an' no one to talk to."

If she didn't love him so much she would've strangled him for talking to her like this, but she knew it was the truth. She just didn't want to admit it. Just thinking about it made her want to cry. "All right, fine, whatever you want. You wanna move back here, we'll do it. But can we _please_ talk about this another time? I just wanna have a nice little walk and not have to worry about anything for a few moments."

He smiled at her. "All right, dear."

She gave him a kiss and said "Thank you" before they took off again.

* * *

The kids were away at school. Luke and Bo were at the garage. Eve and Rosco were out shopping. Daisy was being overworked at the house with dress orders and Enos was out on patrol. Ali was all alone at the house . . . thinking. Thinking about how her life seemed to have been interrupted by these terrible news of hers. Thinking how she had tried to live a better life since she married Luke and started raising a family. Thinking how it wasn't fair that she tried so hard and yet it all came crashing down anyways. Thinking about how this had happened thirteen years ago when she lost the unborn child that should have been their first baby.

And now she's been diagnosed with lung cancer. It just wasn't fair. But it wasn't just unfair to her, it was unfair to the kids and the rest of the family as well. Dang it, maybe she should confide in someone. Luke was a big help, but he was gone all day at work and she sure couldn't depend on the children for emotional support. Dang it, but everyone's so busy. But double-dang it, she needed help with this if she was ever going to get through it!

Sigh, maybe that's why she has a big sister. Granted, Eve never had health problems, but she'd been through enough terrible ordeals to know something about them. Ali had a hunch she could catch her somewhere in town, especially at this time of day. Rosco shouldn't get TOO overly jealous.

* * *

If there was one person that knew had to jabber away, it would be Enos Strate. As friendly as he was, it sometimes became an annoyance to have to stand there and listen to his daily reports on everything that was going on. And it was an extreme annoyance to Rosco because, for one thing, he really didn't care; for another, he was getting too old to stand in one spot to listen to all that jabbering---at least that what he'd tell you. He was rather envious that his wife was able to slip past. Actually, she cheated a little. Just to get some peace and quiet, she made the excuse that she needed to go to the bank to transfer some money and left Rosco with the still yakking Enos.

She promised with a smile that she'd make it up to him later, so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to have to listen to Enos for a another half hour or so.

* * *

Eve was so sick of standing in line. She HATED lines. The main reason for coming in here though was to wire some money from her account in Tennessee over to Hazzard and then put it away as a sort of college fund for Chelsea. She had a good feeling about that girl, even though right now she was only being a rebellious teenager who could care less about education. One day she would appreciate it. 

She wished she hadn't left Rosco out by himself, even if he was with Enos. Everytime she was separated from him, she had the nagging fear that something bad would happen. Just like last time she left him alone, he got shot at, drugged, and almost killed by that madman Hogg. Ever since she hadn't hardly let him out of her sight, but when the time came that she DID, she'd always get anxious and worry herself sick that something terrible would happen.

Oh good, just one more person and then it would be her turn.

"EVERYBODY, PUT YOUR HANDS UP! THIS IS A BANK ROBBERY!"

The warning came as such a shock, that some people didn't realize that it was really happening. A bank robbery, there hadn't been one in so long that it was a forgotten practice to hold your hands in the air and obey orders.

"I SAID PUT 'EM UP!"

Whoever it was, it was female and she meant business. Rather brave coming in by herself, Eve noted. Idiotic, but brave. Everybody had their hands up, some of the women had started sniffling back tears, men were glaring daggers, but they all started putting what money they had in the bag that the she-robber was holding out.

"Put all your money in the bag, come on people, let's move it!" she snapped sharply at some of the older people and the ones that were crying and shaking too hard to do anything productive. "Open those registers, come on move it!"

She came to Eve, who had an icy gleam in her eyes. The she-robber glared back and said, "What're you waitin' on, Blondie? Put it all in there!"

_I leave him alone for a day, he gets shot at. I leave him alone for a few minutes, an' I get robbed_, Eve couldn't help but think in an almost humorous manner.

"What happened to 'please'?" Eve shot back, not even about to let this creep go with her cash.

"Cut the crap, lady, an' hand it over!" the woman replied sharply, grabbing her purse and sticking her hand inside.

"NO!" she argued, now fighting with the woman to rip the purse out of her hands. "HELP! HELP!"

That's when it happened. The woman pulled out the small handgun and pulled the trigger. It hit Eve like a freight train as she felt the stinging, heated metal fly through her upper chest area and exit out the back. Her breath hitched and out of shock, she stared blankly at her attacker as she began to fall backwards. The she-robber had a terrified look in her own eyes, as if she couldn't believe what she had just done. Then she promptly ran out to the back door to get to her car.

Some people rushed to Eve to try and prolong the bleeding. It was too late to try and save her though, she'd already lost so much. The lights were growing dim and Eve could hear the faint beat of her own heart growing weaker and weaker. She barely heard a man screaming for someone to call an ambulance. Everything began to go in slow motion and swirl around in a dizzying madness of reality.

"Eve! Eve, oh my God, Eve!"

Her eyes were half-closed when she heard the distant sound of her husband calling her and the fuzzy image of him kneeling by her and holding both her hands. Her eyes were starting to move around in little circles due to the swimmy feeling in her head.

"Eve, can ya hear me, baby? Say something!"

_I can't say anything...my mouth's dry...I'm sorry, honey..._

"EVELYN?" Rosco was screaming now, pushing away Enos who was trying to pull him away. "Evie, PLEASE, dear God, say something!"

She couldn't hardly open her mouth wide enough to mouth out the words "I love you", but somehow she managed to do so. Tears were pouring out of Rosco's eyes at this point. She knew he was telling her to hang in there, help was coming, she'd be all right, but she couldn't hear him say any of it. It wasn't too long that all went black and she couldn't even see him anymore---and never would again.

"Eve?" Rosco asked her when he noticed she wasn't responding anymore. "Eve?"

"She's gone," Enos whispered to him sadly. "She's gone, Rosco."

"SHE CAN'T BE GONE! I'M SUPPOSED TO GO FIRST, NOT HER!" He started crying, holding his late wife in his arms. "Not her . . ."

Enos had tears running down his own face now. He turned to leave Rosco alone with Eve for a while and wipe his eyes. The tears almost came back when he saw Ali pushing her way through the crowd.

"What's going on here?" she demanded before she was able to see the body. "What happened, is anyone---" She stopped in mid-sentence when she saw Rosco holding Eve's lifeless body on the floor of the bank. "Hurt?" she finished softly, suddenly feeling the need to find a restroom and vomit. She held it in though, and stumbled forward in a daze. "Eve?"

Enos grabbed her arm before she could get any closer. "Ali, don't. Leave him alone with her for a while."

"SHE'S MY SISTER!" she argued, trying to fight her way out of his grip. "Let me go!"

"Ali!" Enos said sharply, which was very out of character for him to do. "It's his wife. Let them alone for a few minutes."

Ali took another look at her sister. This was the second time she'd had to suffer through a sister dying. First Rachel, now Eve. Ali crumpled up on the floor and started to cry.

* * *

:( That killed me, having to do that. It really did... 


	9. Missing You

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Nine: Missing You**

_Everyone knows that when your name is called out over the intercom at school, you're either in trouble or somethin' bad has happened. I naturally thought that I had gotten into some sorta trouble. Daddy picked me up in silence. I had never seen him so quiet. He just stared ahead at the road. It was strangely eerie, and I couldn't help but think that something had gone terribly wrong. _

"Daddy? What's wrong? You're scarin' me," Chelsea said to break the silence as the two drove down to the hospital.

Bo didn't respond right away. It took him a minute to tell her, "Chelsea, honey---um . . . there's been an accident."

Chelsea's eyes widened. "Accident? What kind of accident? Was it Aunt Ali? Did Uncle Rosco have another attack?"

Bo blinked a few times and wiped the corner of his eyes with his shirt sleeve. "No, baby, it's um---it's your Aunt Evie."

Chelsea blanked out for a few minutes, giving Bo permission to continue. "Um, she was in the bank when---when---well someone came in to rob it, and---your aunt got in the way and---"

Bo's words trailed off, not completing the sentence. Chelsea already knew what had happened. In complete and total shock, she sat up in her seat and stared out at the road. Tears came to her eyes and they rolled down her face.

"H-how's Uncle Rosco?" she asked in a quivering voice, afraid to speak too much in fear of breaking down into sobs.

"He---he's not so well, Chelsea. He hasn't stopped cryin' since it happened."

"It's not fair," she said quietly, her voice breaking. "She wasn't sick or anything. An' she was only trying to stop that stupid robber."

"I know, baby, I know."

_I wanted to ask so many questions. Like, why did Aunt Evie think she had to be heroic and stop a bank robber? Why did the robber think they had to kill her? Who's gonna take care of Uncle Rosco now?

* * *

_

_Everyone was at the hospital already when we arrived. Uncle Luke was holdin' Aunt Ali as she cried. She was sayin' something like, "We may not have gotten along at times, but she was still my sister!". Jesse, Lizzy, and Rachel were off to themselves. I saw Lizzy cryin' and Rachel was huggin' her while runnin' a hand through her hair comfortingly. Jesse was sittin' down with his face down in his hands. Daisy and Enos were tryin' to console Uncle Rosco, who was sittin' down and cryin' to himself. He looked as if he'd aged twenty years. It was awful. _

_The funeral took place three days after that. As if it God had planned it that way, it rained during the services. It was so dreary, everyone wearing black, in somber moods, the dark clouds overhead crying out tears just like the rest of us. Uncle Rosco hadn't said a word since the day at the hospital. A few times a day, however, he would break down into tears at any random moment. I stood beside him during the funeral and held his hand, but I'm not sure if he noticed. I'm concerned that his health is getting worse 'cause of the depression he's going through. I've taken it upon myself to make sure he takes his heart medicine. Turns out I was right in diagnosing that he had Coronary Heart Spasms. I hope he doesn't have a full-fledged heart attack over this._

_Cousin Cooter is supposed to be dropping in when he comes through after a shipment. He said on the phone he would take a week off to stay with us and then he'd have to be back at work. He was real upset when he heard about Aunt Evie. He said she was his favorite cousin, and that he wished that he could've been there for her the way that she was always there for him. This week is gone by so fast. So strange, I would've thought it'd go by slowly...

* * *

_

Rosco was sitting in the front porch swing that Bo had at his house. He had spent most of his evenings sitting there in silence, gazing out at the yard, the driveway, the surrounding woods---as if he half-expected Eve to pop back to life and come walking up or something. It was so hard to get through the day without someone to get through it with.

He heard the front door open and the sound of footsteps came towards him, but he didn't shift his eyes over to look. The swing creaked as the added weight of another body sat down beside him.

"Hi, Bo," he said without even knowing that it was Bo yet. It was the first thing he'd said in days.

"Hey," Bo said quietly, leaning back against the swing. He looked out at his yard and took in a deep breath, not really knowing how to start things off.

"Bo?" Rosco asked, sparing the younger man from having to come up with something to say. "When Rachel died---how'd you get through it?"

The question was slightly expected, yet at the same time slightly unexpected. Bo had a feeling that the question would come up sooner or later, he just hadn't counted on _sooner_. He stretched his legs out and sighed. "Well, Rosco---I'll admit, it took me a while to get over her death. But the thing that kept me goin' was Chelsea. I remembered that Chelsea was a part of Rachel---that she was someone that we had created together and she seemed to make our love stronger. When Chelsea was born and had those problems of hers, we stuck through it and even that made us stronger. So when Rachel died, it was like half of me had died too. But I remembered Chelsea had also lost half of herself as well, so I bonded with her more for that reason and that kept me going on."

"Ya miss her?"

"Yeah," Bo responded immediately. "Every day."

Rosco looked like he was going to start crying again. "Y'know, when we first met---I think she was kinda scared of me." He chuckled to himself. "Can ya imagine that? Scared of me. I didn't think she'd gimme a second thought, seein' how I was so much older than her and an idiot to boot." He sighed deeply and wiped his eyes. "I still don't rightly know what I ever did to deserve her."

"Ya loved her. That's enough reason."

"Yeah . . . I guess."

"Rosco? You ain't gonna---I don't know---you're not gonna go hurt yourself are ya? Chelsea's worried ya might."

"I'm hurtin' enough as it is, Bo. Anything I do to myself physically can't compare to what's goin' on emotionally. But no, I'm not gonna _hurt myself_."

Bo patted him softly on the shoulder before getting up and going back inside the house, leaving Rosco at the swing. Bo knew that he wouldn't come in until it became to dark to see anything.

_God? Can people die of broken hearts? Uncle Rosco's so sad 'cause of Aunt Evie goin' away. I hear stories all the time 'bout folks losin' the will to live or dyin' of broken hearts. Are they true? I hope they're not, but just in case they are---could you maybe help Uncle Rosco find his way around heaven so he can find Aunt Evie? He'd be so sad if he got there were she was an' then not be able to find her amongst all those people. He's not very good with directions, so maybe you could give him an angel when he gets there to show 'im around. That would help him out alot. Tell Aunt Evie that I'll try to keep an eye on him for her while he's still here with us. Okay, I think that's all for now. In Jesus' name I pray---Amen.

* * *

_

Isabella had been observing the times of days that the townsfolk went into and out of the Hazzard County Bank. She had been watching from a distance to see when the least busiest time was. That was when she pulled it---pulled the robbery that is. No, she hadn't been lying when she said she was going home to Louisiana, but what she failed to mention was that she was going cross-country robbing the small town banks that she passed on her way home. The BMW she had stolen almost two weeks back, although painted a different color, was starting to make her uneasy. It had an oil leak that had evolved sometime during her stay in Hazzard and it was sure to have a left a trail at the bank when she made her getaway.

After it was all over with, the plan was to stick around in town for a while so not to draw too much attention. A drifter that stays in town only before and after a bank robbery is the ultimate suspect, so she learned from experience to stick around for a while afterwards. She just couldn't wait to get back home and use the money she'd been stealing to help build up her shipping business to transport illegal drugs across the Gulf to the different islands.

If only that stupid blonde woman hadn't gotten in her way. Things would have been much smoother if she had only kept her distance and obeyed orders. Isabella never meant to kill her; truth be known, she'd never had to kill anyone during a robbery. But that day had been an exception and it made her angry. Angry that she was starting to become to weak to control some simple-minded civilian into sitting down and shutting up while she snatched money from them. She couldn't slip up now, not when they were going to be after a thief AND a murderer.


	10. Pretty Poison

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Ten: Pretty Poison**

"Daddy, who would wanna kill Miss Evie?" Rachel asked as she was following Enos around the perimeter of the bank. "That stupid bank robber better not have skipped town, 'cause I just might give 'em a little butt-kickin'. Hey, Daddy, lookie there. Looks like someone needs to get their oil tank fixed or somethin', they left a streak of oil all the way down the alley---hey, ya reckon this is the robber's car that did this? I bet they had an oil leak an' just didn't know it when they were robbin' the bank. Ya reckon we oughta follow it? I do!"

"Sweetie, I think ya need to lay off the sugary stuff for a while."

"I'm super serious though! Come on, Daddy, put two-and-two together, I bet if ya follow this oil leak trail you'll find the perp."

"Oil leak only goes so far, an' it could belong to anybody."

Rachel rolled her eyes and threw her arms up in the air. "You're impossible. Fine then, _I'll _go check it out then."

She took off running down the alley before Enos could otherwise protest, but then he figured she knew her way around town enough to not get lost and wouldn't get into _too _much trouble---he hoped.

* * *

Rachel winded her way around the back side of the buildings until she finally realized that the trail ended cold---the oil disappeared. Darn it, that's why she needed her a hound dog, a real big bloodhound to help her do things like this. She gritted her teeth in annoyance and kicked at a trashcan. She looked around her and noted that she was near the hotel. 

Glumly, she stuck her hands in her jacket pockets and went out to the sidewalk near the street so she'd be facing the front of the buildings. She scanned the parking lot and noticed an annoyingly familiar black BMW. And then she noticed the driver walking out towards it. Isabella. The disgustingly beautiful stranger that thought she could hog-tie Jesse and Lizzy's daddy and keep as a trophy. Rachel had a good mind to slash all four tires, but she wasn't old enough to have her own knife (at least that's what her parents told her).

Isabella got in her car to go---wellsomewhere of course---and only when she was out of sight did Rachel observe the area that she had pulled out from. And behold, a puddle of oil located directly where Isabella car had just been parked. Rachel's eyes became like little slits and she imagined aiming little laser beams at Isabella's car while she drove and then imagined it blowing up.

"I'll get you, my pretty. An' your little car, too."

* * *

_Instead of going home like I normally do, I just skipped takin' the bus an' decided to go over to the garage where I knew Daddy would be at. Uncle Luke wasn't workin' today, he an' Aunt Ali went to do somethin' that nobody told me about an' I figured Daddy could use the company. Uncle Rosco was home by himself, but I didn't think he'd want to be bothered with any "kids" runnin' around the house. And much to my dismay, Lizzy along with Jesse were also hangin' out at the garage. Jesse's okay, but Lizzy? Sweetheart, grow up already._

When Chelsea walked up to the garage, she was immediately greeted by Lizzy's annoying "Hiii, Chelseeeeea!"

Chelsea waved her hand at her and walked right past her and straight to where Bo was looking in the hood of the car. "Yo, Daddio, what's up?"

"Apparently not your IQ," the person that she had thought was Bo said, who lifted his head and smiled at her. "If your gonna mix me and Bo up with each other."

Chelsea's eyes got big and a smile stretched across her face. "COOTER!" she squealed, jumping to wrap her arms around his neck and give him a big hug.

"Oh, NOW ya recognize me, huh?" Cooter joked as he hugged her back. "I'm almost insulted."

"Sorry, I just wasn't expectin' ya," Chelsea admitted as she pulled back. "Where is everybody?"

"Bo's in the office, Lizzy's up front, and I guess Jesse went with him. So---how you been holdin' up since . . . you know."

_I knew he meant what happened to Aunt Evie. I heard they were each other's favorite cousins._

"I guess I'm all right," Chelsea told him. "Still in shock though, but so is everybody else. Never thought it would happen."

"That's for dang sure. Shocked the heck oughta me too." He sighed, as if thinking about something and then decided to switch subjects. "Got a boyfriend yet?"

She started laughing. "Who ME? You're askin' ME? Oh-ho, that's a good one, Cooter, honestly."

Bo walked out from the office at this point, Jesse in tow. "See y'all managed to run into each other," Bo said. He looked up and frowned when he noticed the black BMW pulling up. "And _she_ always manages to run into _us_."

Cooter gave him a strange look. "Why, who's _she_? Someone I need to know about?"

Jesse recognized who the "she" was and decided he wanted to go hang out in the office some more.

"What's goin' on, y'all?" Cooter asked before Bo could shush him, the woman now walking towards them, who smiled sweetly and said "hello" to Lizzy when the girl told her "hi".

_Ah, the infamous Isabella no doubt. She looks like a fake. How can she stand wearing all that make-up?_

"Hello, Bo," Isabella greeted, getting a subtle head nod from Bo and blank looks from everybody else.

"Hi, Isabella," Bo managed to say politely.

"I'm Chelsea, Bo's daughter," Chelsea intervened, making a point to introduce herself.

Isabella gave her a sickeningly sweet smile. "Oh, yes of course. Hello, dear."

_That sounded too much like Missus Doubtfire for my taste._

"And I'm Cooter Davenport, Bo's friend an' cousin-in-law."

She gave him a look that probably asked "What kind of name is _that_?" but then she smiled the same way she had smiled at Chelsea and said, "Oh, pleased to meet you. Um, _Bo_," she stated, trying to steer her conversation back to her original target.

"Yes?"

She blinked at the interruption then smiled before continuing. "I seem to be having a little trouble with my car, I think it's an oil leak. Is there anything you can do?"

_She's askin' a mechanic if he can fix an oil leak? Geez, lady, who else fixes those things? _

"Uh, yeah, sure I can handle it," Bo answered. "You can just leave it here an' come back in about an hour or two to pick it up."

"Oh thank you so much, Bo." She looked around the garage as if trying to find something. "Um, is Luke here?"

"No, he went somewhere with his _wife_," Bo replied, stressing the word "wife" to get a message across.

Cooter's eyes were going back and forth between the other two adults, trying to figure out what was going on. Isabella had an icy look in her eyes which warmed up pretty fast so she wouldn't look too odd.

"All right, thanks," she said, turning to walk out.

When she was out of sight, she made sure that nobody was looking at her while she quickly took off one of her heels and broke it against the side of the gas tank, then quickly put it back on, collapsed, and started yelling in "pain". Just as she wanted, she heard multiple pairs of feet come rushing to her aid.

"What happened?" Chelsea asked, although she didn't really care.

"My shoe broke and I think I twisted my ankle!" Isabella cried, holding her "busted ankle" and moaning.

Bo sighed. The woman may have been causing trouble around Hazzard, but she was still a woman and she needed help. And it wasn't like a Duke to turn down someone in help.

"All right, calm down," he told her, motioning to Cooter to help him pick her up. "There we go, let's get ya in my truck."

"WHAT?" Chelsea exclaimed. "Daddy, what're ya doin'?"

"Chelsea, she needs to lie down an' get some rest for a while. I'll just drop her off with you an' you can watch her."

"ME?"

_Oh, Daddy, you _so_ owe me for this!!_

_

* * *

_

"So who'd ya say you were again?" Rosco asked Isabella, who was at present laid up on Bo's couch with her foot propped up on pillows.

"Isabella," she answered, trying to ignore him as much as possible.

Rosco was leaned back in the sofa drinking his coffee. "I heard a rumor you were a homewrecker."

She stared at him with a befuddled look. "Excuse me?"

"A homewrecker," he repeated casually. "I heard that's what ya were."

"I'm not a _homewrecker_, pops, and whoever told you that was nuts."

"Y'know, in some states it's illegal to break up a family."

"Bo, where's that ice pack at?" Isabella called out, getting nervous with the elderly man's insistance that she was indeed a homewrecker.

"Now why ain't your ankle swollen up? That's what mine did when I sprained it. See, I was about seven years old, an' my fat sister Lulu, who was fat even then, was chasin' me around the house on account I'd taken the last chocolate chip cookie that our dear sweet Momma had made, God rest her soul an'---"

"One ice-pack, comin' up," Bo announced, carrying the cold pack into the living room and laying it on Isabella's ankle.

"Oooh, that's cold."

"Yeah, that's why it's an _ice _pack," Rosco informed her. "Otherwise, it wouldn't be an ice pack, it be a---oh, what're those things called?"

"Uncle Rosco, medicine time!" Chelsea called from the kitchen.

"Blasted medicine, hate that stuff," he mumbled, getting up out of the chair and making his way to the kitchen. "Don't why I gotta have it, ain't doin' me no good, tired of takin' the stuff . . ."

_Uncle Rosco's been gettin' worse and worse. He started mutterin' to himself more an' more, plus he keeps rattlin' on these meaningless stories of his childhood an' who-knows-what-else to keep his mind off Aunt Evie. I don't think he wants his medicine anymore either. Like it's a chore for him to keep living. Like it's a _punishment _to keep living. _

"Good God, is your dad always annoying?" Isabella asked Bo.

Bo started laughing. "Rosco's a lot of things, but he sure ain't my dad. My parents died when I was a toddler. He's my brother-in-law, he's just stayin' for a few weeks."

"Brother-in-law?"

"Yeah, my wife and his wife were sisters." Bo sighed. "His wife, Eve, just got killed in that bank robbery a few days ago."

Isabella nearly jumped up off the couch. _Holy crap, these people are related to that woman I shot! NOOO!_

"Oh my that's awful," she replied, freaking out on the inside.

"Yeah, he's not takin' it very well I don't think. But anyway, that's not your problem. You just lay here and rest up. When ya feel like you can move around enough on your own, we can send you on your way.


	11. Hospital

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Eleven: Hospital**

Luke was anxiously pacing back and forth in the waiting room of the hospital. They had left the kids with Bo at the garage, and Luke would pick them up later at his house to take them home. He still hadn't told them about their mother's health problems. He wished he had done it sooner. They would be full of questions when they couldn't find Ali anywhere when they got home.

The doctor had begun the laser surgery on Ali's lungs at one o'clock that afternoon---it was now afer three. Luke hadn't heard anything so far from anybody---nothing about her condition, how much longer it was going to take, etc. He was too nervous to eat; the cafeteria food was sorry anyway. Everytime he heard someone call over the intercom for help with a "Code Blue" or something to that nature, he would freak out thinking it was Ali.

At last, he resorted to flipping through an old "Home and Garden" magazine that had been left by another visitor. Just when he was getting past the first ten pages, he was approached by Dr. Moncrief, wearing his green surgical scrubs and was still in the process of taking his gloves off. Luke jumped up immediately, the magazine falling to the floor.

"How is she, doc? She gonna be okay?"

"Your wife is doing fine, she made it through the surgery without any difficulty."

Luke blew out a sigh of relief.

"But I do have some bad news, but it's not too terribly bad. We couldn't get all the cancer cells out with the laser beam, so we are going to have to resort to radiation therapy to kill what is left so she won't have to go through this again."

Luke knew she wouldn't be very happy about that, but she would surely agree that it was best. He just nodded his head to acknowledge the information. "Uh, can I see her yet?"

"Oh, of course. They've taken her to room 236, the nurses will tell you where to go.

* * *

Isabella flittered her eyes open slowly as she woke up from her nap. She yawned and rolled over on her side to finish taking it when she startled at the sight of three different kids and one overweight tabby cat staring at her from the adjacent couch. 

"What are you looking at?" she asked in a shocked voice.

Everybody suddenly jumped up and scattered in different directions, as if they were trying to make her think that they hadn't been there the entire time. The only one that stayed was the cat who was staring at her intently with big yellow eyes. Isabella glared at it before barking at it to scare him off. Instead he reared up and jumped on her to scratch at her then when yowling off to the back of the house.

"Ugh!" the lady growled, throwing a pillow on top of her head in frustration. Which was furthered by someone knocking at the door and then coming in when no one answered.

"Bo?" she heard a familiar voice ask, and she took the pillow off her head to see---

"Luke?" she asked.

Luke started and gave her a strange look. "Isabella? What are you doin'---"

"Daddy!" Lizzy called out, running up to him to throw her arms around his waist. "We missed you!"

"I missed you too, sweetie," he told her with a smile, patting her head. "Have you been good?"

"Uh-huh."

"Where's Momma?" she asked, of which Luke was saved from answering when Bo peeked his head around the corner and used his finger to give him a "come hither" motion.

"Hang on, honey," Luke told his daughter, following Bo to the back where they wouldn't be bothered.

"What on earth is _she _doin' here?" Luke asked his cousin through gritted teeth. "I don't want her around my kids!"

"Luke, I'm sorry, but she came to the garage to get an oil leak fixed an' when she was leavin' she sprained her ankle. I couldn't just leave her there."

"Ya coulda took her to the hospital or somethin', instead of pollutin' her in your own house."

"Oh, I'm sorry, you wanted her to be in the same place you an' Ali's been all mornin'?" Bo asked, his arms crossed angrily.

Luke sighed aggravatedly. Bo had a point. "Fine, whatever, I just don't want her near my kids. Or me for that matter."

"Your wish is granted. How's Ali?"

"They got most of the cancer out, but they're gonna have to go into radiation therapy to get the rest. She was sound asleep when I left her to come get the kids."

"You gotta tell 'em, y'know."

"I will. When we leave, I'll take 'em by there to see her an' I'll explain it."

* * *

"Mom's sick!" Jesse exclaimed as the three drove down the road from Bo's house. "An' you're just now decidin' to tell us!" 

"I didn't want y'all to worry---"

"Worry? I'm past worried, Dad!"

Lizzy looked up at Luke with big eyes. "Can we see her?"

"Of course you can, that's what we're doin' now," he explained. "Just don't touch anything that's in the room, okay? An' don't be pokin' on her or huggin' her real hard either, she's still sore from the surgery."

"What else do we not know about?" Jesse challenged him, feeling brave for once.

"Nothin'. There's nothin' else ya don't know about," Luke replied with a curious look on his face.

"I overheard you an' Uncle Bo talkin'. How come ya don't want Isabella around us, huh?"

If he had been drinking something, he would have spewed it all over his windshield. "WHAT?"

"You heard me, why don't ya want Isabella around us? Are you scared she'll say somethin' ya don't want us to hear?" Jesse continued. He was referring to the day that he and Rachel had witnessed Isabella laying a wet one on his dad.

"Jesse, what on earth are you talkin' about?"

"You know."

Luke was getting a little worried about his son, so he pulled over and asked him to step out while Lizzy stayed inside. Jesse slammed the door shut and sat down on the rear bumper of the truck with his arms crossed and an angry look sketched on his face. Luke leaned up beside him, not quite sure how to start it off.

"Mind tellin' me what's goin' on?"

"You tell me. You're the one that's cheatin' on Mom."

Luke nearly fell over. "Excuse me?"

"We saw you, me an' Rachel," Jesse told him, looking at the ground and tears coming to his eyes. "We saw Isabella give ya that kiss an' you didn't tell her not too, so what else do you expect me to think?"

_Dammit_. Luke ran a hand through his hair and thought of what he could say. "Jesse, what you saw---I didn't ask her to do that. That was all her idea an' I wasn't even expectin' it. I don't even like her that much."

"You said she was a nice lady."

"She is, but that don't mean I like her. I don't like anyone that tries to break up the family."

"What about Uncle Bo? He's takin' care of her."

"He's just bein' a Duke, takin' care of people whether we like 'em or not. Don't change the subject. Y'know I love your mom, right?"

"Yeah," he said sheepishly.

"Y'know I love you an' your sister, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, nobody especially some woman is gonna change that, okay?"

"Okay. I love ya, Dad."

"I love you, too, son. How's 'bout we go see your mom, all right?"

* * *

Lizzy was staring at all the devices that were hooked up to her mother with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Luke had taken Jesse to the cafeteria to get something to eat. It didn't matter if it tasted bad or not, Jesse would most probably eat it. "Does it hurt, Momma?"

"Does what hurt?"

"The machines stuck to ya. Do they hurt?"

"No, baby, they keep me _from _hurtin'. That bag up on that pole has pain medicine inside."

"Like Tylenol?"

"I think it's a little stronger than Tylenol, but yeah it's kinda the same I guess."

"Did the surgery hurt?"

"No, I was asleep."

"I think I could feel someone cuttin' into me if I were asleep."

Ali smiled at her. "I was in a very deep sleep an' I couldn't feel anything."

"How long you gotta stay here? I'm gonna miss you."

"I'll miss you too, but the doctors say I have to stay here for a while until I get well enough."

"When will that be?"

"I don't know, sweetie . . . I don't know."


	12. End of the Line

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Twelve: End of the Line**

_I am gettin' rather suspicious of this Isabella character. I hear her sometimes at night gettin' up off the couch to get somethin' from the fridge, but I don't hear her limpin'. It sounds like normal walkin' to me. What a complete fake. If I knew Daddy wouldn't get onto me, I would march right up to her and BREAK her ankle. I wouldn't be as dramatic as that lady off Stephen King's "Misery", but I'd be pretty close._

_I can't believe Aunt Ali had lung cancer. I knew she was sick, but I didn't guess she was that sick. Pretty scary. I hope she doesn't go like Aunt Evie did. I don't think I could handle another death in the family. I've been tryin' to take real good care of Uncle Rosco, makin' sure he gets his medicine and all. He doesn't seem to be so depressed now, but he might just be fakin' it to keep the rest of us from worryin' about him. He's been talkin' more an' actually gave me a hug yesterday for the first time since Aunt Evie died. _

_Today is the Parent Teacher Conference Day at all the Hazzard County schools. That means we got out of school early so that parents come drop in during the day during their free time an' talk to all the teachers about their children's grades. Daddy always goes, an' I usually go with him just to hear what the teachers think they're gonna say about me. I am a little concerned about leavin' Isabella alone in the house, even if we're goin' to have Uncle Rosco guardin' the house._

* * *

Isabella waited until Rosco was taking his noon-time nap before she decided to go sneaking around the house again. She had to get out of here! She was sick of the crazy kids always bothering her, the cat attacking her, people treating her like the plague, and everything else that happened while she was there. But she wasn't leaving empty-handed. No, she wasn't. 

She had been around the house to know where the extra money was hidden away in the house. In a little tin box above the refrigerator. That was why she kept going to it at night, to make sure it was there and not moved to a different location everyday or whatever. Hey, some folks do that.

She counted a sum of four hundred dollars. What kind of morons left four hundred dollars cash just lying around the house? She stuffed it in her back pocket then decided she would check some sock drawers while everyone was gone. Only thing now was to find a way to get out of here. She had never intended on going back to the garage for her car, she was going to leave it there and pin the whole car theft on whoever was responsible for it at the moment. She just needed a NEW getaway car now . . .

The girl, Chelsea, was apparently smart since she didn't even have so much as loose change thrown on the desk. She decided to check her father's room. He had about fifty stuffed in a sock, like some people usually do. She saw a few pictures on the mirror of him and Luke in their younger days, along with an older grandpa-like gentlemen and a younger lady. Not to mention a sporty orange Dodge Charger with a big "01" on the side. Hm, real nice car, that is.

She still assumed Rosco was asleep so she decided to slip outside to the barn to see if there was anything there. She looked around for a minute then noticed a tarp covering something in the corner. Curious, she slipped the tarp off and---lo and behold! The orange car from the picture! The "01" was there on the sides, a Confederate flag on the top---a little redneck for her but she could fix that with a little paint job. She saw that the keys were in it---idiot boys.

She got a little confused when the door wouldn't open so she simply slipped in through the window in a rather unladylike manner. She then checked to see if the bank money was still hidden safely away in her purse, which she had been carefully guarding the whole time, added to that the money from the house, and cranked the car. If only now she could get away without being seen.

* * *

_We came home to an empty house it seemed. Isabella was missin' from the couch an' Uncle Rosco wasn't anywhere to be seen. I called out for both of them but I didn't get an answer. Daddy said Uncle Rosco was probably just takin' a nap, so we split up to find Isabella. I headed outside to see if she had maybe hobbled her way through the garden or the surrounding woods. That was when I noticed that the garage out back was open._

"Daddy?" Chelsea called out in a loud voice to Bo to get his attention. "I think ya need to see this!"

Bo came jogging out to where his daughter was standing. "What's wrong, did ya find her?"

"No, but I have a hunch that she found you an' Uncle Luke's old race car," Chelsea replied as Bo got closer.

Bo could only stand there in shock as he stared at the empty spot in the garage that had been the General Lee's home for so many years. If Chelsea hadn't been standing right there, he might would have shed a few tears. "Doggone it, that tears it! Nobody gets away with tryin' to seduce my cousin _and _steal my car!"

_I gotta another hunch that this is gonna be a lo-o-o-o-ng day . . . __

* * *

_

Bo and Chelsea went tearing down the road in Bo's car, with Bo driving like he hadn't driven in a _long _time. Chelsea had her hand gripped on the side of the door and her seat buckled---and she never did that!

"Daddy, calm down, you're gonna hit the roof!"

"Too late for that!" He hit the steering wheel in frustration. "I can't believe that wench! She played me! She faked that busted ankle of hers to get into our home, take advantage of our hospitality, an' then steal General Lee!"

_Maybe Rachel was right. Maybe Isabella really did steal that BMW all along. I wished we'd listened to her._

As if by chance, Enos happened to be driving along in his patrol car with Rachel right beside him when Bo came flying down the road. Enos, being the good friend he is, decided he had better slow Bo down a little before he hurt himself or someone else. So on came Enos's voice over the CB, his lights flashing as he followed Bo.

"Hey, Bo, this is Enos. Ya mind slowin' down there a bit buddy?"

"Just give 'im a ticket, Daddy!" Rachel said before Enos could switch off.

Bo grabbed his own CB mike. "Dang it, Enos, that Isabella woman stole General Lee an' I aim to get 'im back!"

Rachel gave Enos a look. "I _told _you she was a car thief. I _told _you! An' nobody believed me!"

"Possum on a gumbush, Bo! Ya sure it was her?"

"Sure I'm sure! I don't know where she is, but I reckon we oughta split up, don't you?"

"I'll check the Chickasaw County border, if you'll check the Chickamahoney border."

"Ten-four."

Rachel was grinning ear to ear. "Oh boy, hot pursuit!"

* * *

While Bo and Enos were trying to find Isabella, Isabella was high-tailing it through the backroads. She thought she was going to make a clean getaway across the Hazzard County border and then keep on until she got to Alabama, then Mississippi, and finally Louisiana where she would use all her stolen money to run her drug shipping business. 

What she didn't expect to see was someone that sure didn't expect to see what he saw.

"Uh, Dad?" Jesse asked Luke. "Ain't that the car you an' Uncle Bo keep in Uncle Bo's garage?"

Luke's eyes flashed as he recognized it. "Yeah. What in tarnation is Bo doin' drivin' it?"

General Lee flew past Luke's truck and that was when he noticed something funny. "Hang on a minute, I _know _that wasn't who I thought it was!"

Luke turned the truck around real fast and started speeding after Isabella. Luke grabbed the mike on his CB and started calling out, "Bo, Bo, this is Luke, ya got your ears on?"

_"Ten-four, Luke, whatcha got?"_

"Am I seein' things or was that Isabella I saw drivin' the General."

_"Nope, you're not seein' things, that was her! She was fakin' her sprained ankle an' took off in the General! I got Enos helpin' me find her, where is she?"_

"Back off, little cousin, I want to take her down myself."

_"But Luke!_"

"Don't 'but' me, I said I wanna take her down myself an' that's final!" Luke hung up the mike. "_Nobody _steals _my _car!"

"Wheeeee, like a roller coaster!" Lizzy giggled as they flew after Isabella.

Luke caught up to Isabella in a matter of minutes. It pained him to have to do what he had to do but---he nudged the truck over and hit the General's side with his tire, making the orange racer almost go off the road. Isabella shot daggers at Luke and the kids, which prompted Luke to hit her again. That did the trick. The General Lee went flying into the ditch, for the millionth time in his lifetime. And like always, he seemed to be all right.

Isabella realized she was done for and she tried to climb out the car's window but found herself stuck. Before she could get un-stuck, Luke had already jumped out of his truck and was _hauling _her out. He jerked her to her feet and she glared at him.

"Mind tellin' me what you're doin', Isabella? Comin' into our lives, tryin' to break me up with my wife, faking an injury to take advantage of my cousin, an' then stealin' our car? Explain yourself!"

Frustrated, Isabella flung her long dark hair behind her shoulder. "Well, since you've caught me, I might as well tell you. I was telling the truth when I said I majored in business up north. What I didn't tell you was that I am in the drug shipping business, my whole family. I am inheriting the company from my grandfather, Leroy Moore."

"Moore?" Luke asked, the name sounding familiar.

"Yes. My father may not have given me a second thought, but he was still my father. And you and your family helped to put him in prison and into death row."

Luke almost blanked out. "Eli Moore was your father?"

Eli Moore---a name that everyone had almost forgotten about. The man that was like an identical twin to Cooter Davenport who killed his ex-girlfriends one month after they dumped him. The man that had nearly gotten Cooter arrested and executed. The man that had almost killed Luke and Ali the night he was arrested. And know this woman that was trying to ruin their lives was his daughter.

"Yes, it's true. My real name is Isabella Moore, not Sinclair as I told you when we met. I had planned on coming here to try and ruin your marriage, then rob the bank as a bonus for my shipping business."

"So---you killed Eve?" Luke asked her angrily, his teeth gritted in frustration.

"I didn't actually mean to do it at that moment, but yes. I was going to kill her sometime during my visit, but it happened unexpectedly at the bank. I panicked and figured the best thing to do would to be just leave, but not before taking at least _something _from the rest of the family."

"The only you're takin' with you is a pair of handcuffs and a murder charge."


	13. Gone

A/N: This one's short, but it's sad :(

* * *

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Thirteen: Gone**

**About an hour earlier . . . **

It was hard to say good-bye to them as they left down the driveway. Knowing that was the last time he'd ever see them, it was almost too much to bear. He would miss them, and he was sure they would miss him when they discovered what had happened. That horrendous woman was sleeping on the sofa, which made things seem a little easier. That way no one could interrupt him.

He had never attempted this before, and he wasn't too sure if he could go through with it. But he was hurting so bad on the inside that it didn't matter how it felt on the outside, how bad it would hurt. He knew he told Bo he wouldn't do this, but the truth was that he had decided to do this the instant he knew his life was over. Which was the moment when _her _life had ended.

Overdose seemed the easiest way to go after he decided he just couldn't make himself slice his wrists. He still had half a bottle of medicine left. That oughta do the trick. Oh, how it hurt to swallow all those little pills one after the other, knowing that it wouldn't be too long before he wouldn't feel anything at all. He tossed the bottle on the floor when it was empty, laid down on the bed and holding their wedding picture in his arms. It would be just like going to sleep . . .

* * *

_**Current Time . . . **_

_I couldn't believe the story I heard when we all gathered together at the courthouse. Isabella killed Aunt Evie. She robbed the bank. She stole General Lee. She was the daughter of some loon that tried to fram Cousin Cooter so many years ago. What a messed up world we live in._

_Enos arrested Isabella that day with charges of murder, robbery, grand theft auto, and conspiracy. Rachel gave Isabella a smug smile as she was led to the backseat of the police car. The money was returned to the bank an' the money she had stolen from Daddy an' I was given back to us as well. An' of course the General was returned to his home in the garage out back behind the house. _

Bo and Chelsea had just finished parking the General in the garage. Bo had let Chelsea drive his car (she was scared to death!) so that he could drive the General. Boy, he missed the way that hot rod felt when he was at the wheel. Chelsea was going to put the tarp back on the racer but Bo told her it wouldn't hurt to let him air out for a while.

The house seemed so empty when they went inside. Bo half-expected to see Rosco sitting on the couch watchin' _Wheel of Fortune _or something. But he wasn't.

"Uncle Rosco, we're home!" Chelsea called out when she didn't see him. "Daddy, ya reckon we oughta tell 'im 'bout Isabella?"

"I don't know, sweetie. I don't know how he'd take it," Bo replied. "He might still be asleep anyways. I'll go check on him, you can grab that frozen pizza out of the freezer if ya want to."

Chelsea did as she was told while Bo went to go knock on the guest room door. "Rosco?" he asked in a voice loud enough for him to hear. "Rosco, ya been asleep there for a while. Time to wake up."

"He needs his medicine!" Chelsea called from the kitchen.

Bo turned the door handle and, just as he expected, there was ol' Rosco lying on the bed. Curled up facing away from the door in what looked like a comfortable enough position.

Bo was relieved that at least he was still around but that was when he noticed something. He wasn't moving. He couldn't even see him breathing. Worried now, Bo called his name out softly to see if he would wake up. When he didn't, Bo went over and shook him a little bit and when that didn't work, he checked his pulse.

There wasn't one.

Shocked, Bo stepped back. When he did, he stepped on something that cracked a little bit. He looked down and saw the empty medicine container. In dismay, he looked back at Rosco and noticed he was cradling his and Eve's wedding picture.

Suicide.

Tears springing to his eyes, he then caught the attention of an envelope sitting on the night stand. His curiosity getting the best of him, he picked it up and read what was written:

_Dear Family,_

_If you're reading this, then I'm already gone. There was nothing you could have done to stop me, I had planned this days ago. I just couln't keep living like this. I miss her too much. She was what kept me going. She saved me numerous times from several destructive choices I had made in the past, and now that she's gone I have already gone and made another one._

_In the enclosed envelope is a check that has all the money from the banking accounts. It is to be split up evenly between all the children and put into a college fund. Do whatever you will with the property we have in Tennessee, I won't be needing it. One of the dogs, Tasha, had pups last month; the kids can have one each if they'd like._

_I've never been too good with good-byes, I always tend to well up and cry. So I'll just say a nice simple "Good-bye" to everybody, which is what that right there just was. No sense calling an ambulance. By the time you come home, it'll be too late._

_Much Love, XOXO_

_Rosco P. Coltrane_

Bo pulled out the check that had the seven-digit number written out across it. He couldn't believe this. He had never suspected Rosco would do a thing like this. For the past few days, it seemed as if he was getting over Eve's death, but apparently he hadn't. Not if he had gone and done something like _this_.

Perhaps he only acted as if he were getting over it so that they wouldn't suspect that he was actually very depressed on the inside. So he had indeed really planned on doing this for a while. And he would never get to know who was responsible for Eve's death.

"Daddy?" Chelsea asked as she started to walk in from the kitchen. "Is Uncle Rosco still sleep--"

She stopped dead in her tracks when she witnessed the scene before her. Her uncle lying on the bed motionless and her father standing over him holding a letter in his hand and tears in his eyes. That could only mean one thing. And then she screamed.


	14. Beautiful Lives

**Life Ain't Always Beautiful**

**Chapter Fourteen: Beautiful Lives**

_**Three months later . . . **_

Ali was in the bathroom putting on her make-up for the day. A little mascara here, a little blush there---the usual things that she did to prepare herself for public viewing every day. The only thing that she hadn't quite been able to get out of the habit of was the fact that she wanted to fix her hair.

She had gone ahead with the radiation therapy as the doctor requested. The cancer was gone, but so was her hair. Her dark brown hair had all fallen out in almost a month. She cried everytime she saw bundles of loose hair lying on her pillow, or masses of it at the bottom of the shower. When it was all gone, she thought herself so bizarre looking that she started wearing hats on her head. But in the mornings when she was putting her make-up on, or when she was taking a shower, she was not wearing a hat. Just plain bald skin that shone in the lights over the bathroom mirror. It used to bring tears to her eyes. Now it just bothered her that she didn't have any hair to fix.

At least she was alive. At least the cancer hadn't taken her. She considered herself extremely lucky. She had always thought herself the most unlucky of her sisters. Eve was the successful business-driven one that usually made the smart decisions. Rachel had a good head on her shoulders, although she was stubborn to admit it. When she made mistakes, she fixed them in a logical manner. Ali had just plain made mistakes and didn't care about the consequences. So it still shocked her somewhat that she was the only one of her family that was still alive. With a loving husband, two beautiful children---and healthy. So strange that she had been held at gunpoint twice in her life, had unknowingly ingested rat poison, had lung cancer and _still _be more luckier than her two sisters.

She missed both of them dearly. She had missed Rachel since her death fourteen years ago, and she found herself missing Eve after her death just three months ago. It was depressing. She would go to the graves every now and again, seeing Rachel's weathered tombstone and Eve's fairly new one. Her and Rosco shared one together that had their wedding date etched at the bottom and on the back was an engraved picture of a Bassett Hound in memory of all the ones they had raised together, which included Flash even though Eve didn't help raise her.

Ali took another look in the mirror and sighed. Then she put her ski hat on her head that matched her jogging sweats and headed outside for her morning run.

* * *

_Life Lessons by Rachel Duke_

_When I first heard that we had to do a report about life lessons for this class, I scoffed the idea. I didn't think a fourteen year old would _have _any life lessons to speak about. But I was proven wrong. I have witnessed death, tragedy, confusion, and trials over the past semester. _

_I learned that it is important that you live your life to the fullest. You never know when it will be taken away from you. You want to be successful, but not in the career and money way. I mean successful with your loved ones and family. You want to make sure before you go to wherever it is you are going when you pass away, that people remember that you were a good person and not a bad or selfish one. Live your life everyday as if you were going to die that very same day. _

_I learned that you should be thankful for what you have and don't try to change it. Don't doubt the things you have and start to covet those you can't have. Take pride in your loved ones, don't second guess them. Don't think that they don't see that you're changing when you do this._

_I learned that when you get into a tight spot that you don't think you can get out of, don't panic and try to fix it on your own. Get someone to help you get through it. It helps to talk to someone about your problems so they can help you deal with it easier. And try to look on the bright side---once you get through your problems, things might start looking brighter for you. _

_I learned that it is important to stick together as a family. Sure they drive you nuts sometimes, but it is necessary to stay close to them and support each other. If your family doesn't believe anything you say, then who do you have to go to? Your family is what helps you get through the good times and the bad._

_I also learned that people are not as they seem sometimes. You can learn some interesting things you never would have suspected about a person that you have known all your life. You can also underestimate people that you've only just met. They can sweet talk their way into making you believe anything they want you to hear and then pull a dastardly trick on you in the end._

_I know this is shorter than we were supposed to write, but that is all I have to say. I learned some things over the past few months, and what you just read is what they were._

Grade: A-

Teacher's Comments: Like you said, it is short but to the point. I am sorry that you had to go through so much in order to learn these lessons that you have described in your report---Mr. McNeil.

* * *

"Amazing, isn't it?" Luke asked Bo as they sat together in the car. 

"What is?"

"How life can whizz right by ya without ya even realizing that it's almost half-way over."

Bo nodded his head. "You're tellin' me. I can't believe you're hittin' forty already."

"Geez, thanks for remindin' me."

"Seems to me like it was just yesterday that Uncle Jesse was forty."

"Bo, you don't even remember him when he was that young. You were just a baby."

"I know, but it seems like yesterday that I was just a little kid runnin' around with you an' Daisy gettin' into stuff."

Luke laughed. "Yeah. Well, let's get goin'. See if we can still make the General fly."

"You asked for it."

Bo put the General Lee in drive and the boys drove down a familiar dirt road to a familiar drop-off point where they knew the General would soar. The General played his "Dixie" song, his anthem, as he once again flew across the sky like a phoenix rising from the ashes. The General would always be alive. Just like those that were not part of this world would always be alive in their hearts.

**The End**

**_Life ain't always beautiful . . . but it's a beautiful ride . . . --Gary Allen_

* * *

**

**I think this was my favorite ending to write so far. Kinda sad though. Well, that's the end of this series. I really enjoyed working with these characters. Kinda kills me to say good-bye to them. But they'll always be alive in my imagination so I guess it ain't too bad. Got another Duke fic comin' up here soon, so I hope y'all decide to check it out once I get it up. **


End file.
